Photo Credits: 7089643 (pixabay), 9699186 (pixabay), Maicon Fonseca Zanco (pixabay), JL G (pixabay) Edited by Vaishali Combined 4-Month Wrap Up! Hello reading friends, my consecutive twice-monthly bundled offerings turn to a Wrap Up quartet of sorts as it's been the sum of four months since I last plugged in with any bookish commentary. I really had my goal sights set to have my March/April post active and readable but I've been so sick that health matters had to take precedence and usurp any desire I had to sustain bloggish routine. I had to draw all my limited resources back in and focus on naught else but my mind and body, particularly resting and not spreading all that vital force on un-vital endeavours. Thus, I placed little to no attention on reading and book reading outcomes (energy, admittedly, I didn't have). Cooking and baking shows seem to be a balm when I'm heading through a particularly bad health period, and I've been working through them no less than daily. When I don't have the executive function to read, I often turn to a different form of storytelling entertainment, that which I affectionately call my first love: films. Lots of light-hearted, nostalgic and feel-good on-screen watches became my artfully occupational companions. I sent out my usual newsletter but I didn't have a published post update. I was even more uncertain of my struggling efforts to have this post published, but always one to somehow redouble my efforts and follow some form of routine, I managed to assemble something into coherence. It's perfectly imperfectly unfinished, but a human effort of success against adversity (just like this very blog) it certainly is since I'm still quite poorly. In this update, you're going to find four months' worth of book reading chatter; don't worry, since reading has been a truly 'as and when' exercise, what I'm about to share is far from voluminous. Seven books read in total, with one unfinished title in the mix. A quick scroll and you'll find your destination (and my reviews) but if more book news is your name and game, please do read on! Earlier in the year Winter staged a coup before Spring finally took some form of hold, and even then, rain was feature-esque. We even had some snow in March when the upward empress of meteorological forecasting becameth a bold lady, dancing to the tune of her characteristic unpredictability. Nature doesn't quite like to catch up with the seasons over here. Either that or it has its own definition of what each means entirely, and tends to tick to the tock of its own clock. The season was definitely hard at work not trying to be Spring, though it quickly followed through with its pollen party. But of course, June channels the tune of our hottest season of the year, in climate (and in romance reads). Summer seems to be the season of book launches, every romance author newsletter sings a similarly scorching song of eagerly anticipated reads, and I'm going to fan the flame as I share some of those releases. Keep scrolling for those need-to-read recent releases that I've compiled together. In anthology news, I was hoping to share the news of the 11th annual mental health awareness book fundraiser for the Keith Milano Foundation this past May. An exciting group of romance writers participated, and its initiative was to support the fund through donated sales of all purchases for specifically selected works on any retailer platforms. While the fundraiser is no longer running, I'm posting some very accessible links to their organisation should any persons reading wish to know more, donate, listen to anything from the Keith Milano Foundation's podcast selection or connect with their memorial fund. A quick portal to their website and a quick reminder that this is a US based organisation. Disclaimer: I'm neither compensated nor bound by any number of promotional obligations in any form, fashion or paradigm by referencing this. Mental health amplification and suicide prevention are both incredibly important to me and where I can amplify awareness, you'll find me attempting to push and gently hold hands with every effort. I occasionally share news of projects, fundraising events and charity anthology news that speak to collaborative efforts willing and open to support Inclusion of any kind. And the romance community is a truly exceptional brigade, always unsurprisingly at the forefront of spreading awareness, attention, acknowledgment, support, compassion and lending their talents to incredibly important causes. In other news, with a colourful flag being flown this month in commemoration to a cultural season that spans all orientations, genders and Identity spectrums, and celebrates love and acceptance in all its queer forms, pride month is here. To celebrate with some pride queer cheer, we have anthology news: Pride Not Prejudice is romantic charity collection, available from the 6th of June, that aims to lift and honour LGBTQ+ rights and freedoms. The participating authors are as follows: Amalie Howard | April White | Camille Duplessis | Cynthia St. Aubin | Darynda Jones | Erica Ridley | Hildie McQueen | Jade Lee w/a Kathy Lyons | Janna MacGregor | Jennifer Ashley | Mila Finelli | Kerrigan Byrne | Kim Loraine | Kristan Higgins | Mira Lyn Kelly | Piper Huguley | Robyn Peterman | Rosalind James | Ruby Dixon | Sara Ney | Clare Rebecca McCarthy. Get excited and let your love flow freely for a brilliant project that encompasses so much more than the occasion itself. All brand new stories will feature romances across the queer spectrum. Proceeds from all purchases with be split between four similarity-related reputable charity organisations. And remember, support your favourite LGBTQ+ content creators and your queer creatives, share their books, create some discourse around your favourite picks and always always remember the meaning and message of inviting love in its multiplicity. Another quick mention that April's Lift for Autism auction 2023 is over for the year but the rallied romance community didn't disappoint. With an incredible total raised for the year, I hear it was a grand success through Kennedy Ryan's newsletter. If you'd like to know more, a link to KultureCity's website for you, and if you're an author, reader, blogger, bookstagrammer and have a bookish platform and would love to participate in contribution for Lift for Autism's 2024 auction, you can do so here: https://docs.google.com/forms/... Up next, those scorchers for the most scorching solstice... A ROMANTIC CHARITY COLLECTION Pride Not Prejudice is a charity collection of 21, never-before-published, brand-new stories featuring and benefiting love and Happily Ever Afters across the gender and sexual identity spectrums. Proceeds from both ebook and paperback will be donated to four nationally renowned organizations in support of LGBTQIA+ and other marginalized and oppressed communities in the United States, including PLANNED PARENTHOOD, HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN, NATIONAL CENTER FOR TRANSGENDER EQUALITY and HEALTH PROFESSIONALS ADVANCING LGBTQ+ MEDICAL TREATMENT AND EQUALITY. The following contributing authors are either NYT or USA Today bestselling or LGBTQIA+ or BIPOC own-voice authors who are allies, parents, or children touched by the need to read more romance where people of all identities and orientations find love. Amalie Howard ~ April White ~ Camille Duplessis ~ Cynthia St. Aubin ~ Darynda Jones ~ Erica Ridley ~ Hildie McQueen ~ Jade Lee w/a Kathy Lyons ~ Janna MacGregor ~ Jennifer Ashley ~ Mila Finelli ~ Kerrigan Byrne ~ Kim Loraine ~ Kristan Higgins ~ Mira Lyn Kelly ~ Piper Huguley ~ Robyn Peterman ~ Rosalind James ~ Ruby Dixon ~ Sara Ney ~ Clare Rebecca McCarthy Purchase Links attached!Recently Released Romance Reads...(What a tumbling text of 'R's') NEW RELEASE Launches (and early 2023 releases): Admittedly, this had the original genesis of being an expectedly short list. I got excited with the editing and 'putting-together' process when accumulating this library of love and browsed Amazon's recent romance releases like a single-focussed automaton. It's now affirmatively not a short list. With so many recommendations on my screen listing, a very popular site practically flooded my headspace with potential selections. Through my search, I came across some new names in romance (even for me), and have added those in too. It's since taken the form of a long list bonanza, a veritable literary feast for all romance reading fiends. Take the initiative and add some to your reading lists! All books below to bury yourselves in for the summer, and every other season, of course.
1) Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray - Rating ★★ ★ ★
The destined concept of universal familiars is a deeply comforting concept, and Gray really digs her pen into this particular theme. There's a beautiful boundary-crossing sentimentalism about it that plays to familial conviction and universal affection that spans any gap between universes. As I'm sure I've likely already voiced, there something very readable about this set of books and I'm having such fun time exploring them. Having come away with more knowledge of the multiverse as well as the loved ones that dwell in each one, Marguerite's learnings have taught her how precious her family is and how love can carry a familiar faith within each world. The consequences of scientific ingenuity and creativity are twisted to meet the needs of a high powered wrongdoer with dimension-spanning plans. Book two continues to lean into alternate world visits, which services the inner struggle of each character. The plotline is an ever-moving, ever-changing hook and I loved the alternate world settings we're dropped into with the sequel MY FULL REVIEW for Ten Thousand Skies Above You can be found here - 4 S T A R S to Ten Thousand Skies Above You2) Love You Better by Brit Benson - Rating ★ ★ ★ ★
I've read some wonderfully recommendable Indie published romance, and I confirm that Brit Benson's Love You Better is affirmatively one of them. I eased into this one after reading a brief teaser excerpt of book two (which I immediately decided needed to be on my reading list) but thought I'd start at the source with Ivy and Kelley when I realised I already had the series opener locked and loaded on my kindle app. Love You Better is my Brit Benson first and moves to the bend of a beautiful, balanced, heartfelt, well-rounded college romance with the positive uplift of a long, familiar, sweetly bonded forever friendship en route to be so much more than a settled-into comforting companionship. Content Warning: past sexual abuse and nondescript references/memories that allude to the assault. Trauma/assault-related panic attacks and nightmares. Bullying over a learning disability. Past parent death/car accident. PTSD, anxiety. Mentions drink driving. Reference to a past drugging and rape, and describes the impact of said sexual assault. Some violence. MY FULL REVIEW for Love you Better can be found here - 4 S T A R S to Love You Better 3) Inevitable by Jenna Hartley - Rating ★ ★ ★ ★
I'm so glad I started here with Jenna Hartley and now that this author and I finally meet, I ungraciously welcome myself down her contemporised walkway of romance whenever the season calls. I'm very happy I have a Hartley finish I get to call complete and completely readable. A taste of the forbidden and a taste for the gentle lures of the older man with leading character chemistry you can effortlessly fall into rhythm with. Mixing new experiences with newer paths and redirection pushing them to redefine, Inevitable grounds itself with some bigger truths that trace the well-chased push of living the life you want to live and loving beyond the risk. Content Warning/Listing: Adult language. Anxiety/panic over flying due to PTSD and a traumatic incident. An almost sexual situation with the hero and an OW. Past parents deaths by car accident. Mentions a past extramarital affair. Some violence. Smut scenes. MY FULL REVIEW for Inevitable can be found here - 4 S T A R S to Inevitable4) Always Mine by Laura Pavlov - Unfinished
Always Mine is where I made a first out of a Laura Pavlov romance (additionally to being first in the Honey Mountain series) and not to say that this wouldn't be an adequately passable read for most romance readers but the friends to lovers dynamic didn't hit with the expected intention (for me). I found that the peripheral elements of the story were more preferable to the immediacy of the central romance. Though, reading friends, that's not to say it won't be for you! - Unrated/Unfinished5) Praying for Rain by B.B. Easton - Rating ★ ★ ★ ★
Just stepping out of her home is a curse and a reminder that the world is not the same. It's a disaster zone. That is, until the fatalised meets the survivalised and a tatted rough-and-tumble captor companion makes her feel like the light may be bigger than the dark. Set in a small town, BB Easton flips the script with a dark, gritty, emotive interpretation of a doomsday storyline. A hoax or a hell, or just the epically unordinary? It really doesn't matter when the final three days of life spell three things for all: lawlessness preceding the running hooves bolstering symbols of tribune and myth, damnation and an end of world etiquette of people turned primal. Content Warning/Listing: Death, killings. Alcoholic parent. Frequent profanity. Frequent painkiller use. Violence. Shooting. Mentions rape often but no central characters are abused in such a way. Suggested rape of a central character. Mentions dead/mauled/injured/ravaged bodies. violence. References childhood neglect and the starvation a baby. Parents with addictions. Unprotected sex. Gory Descriptions of death and injury. Attempted suicide by Overdose. MY FULL REVIEW for Praying for Rain can be found here - 4 S T A R S to Praying for Rain6) The Fate of Us by Rachel Bowdler - Rating ★ ★ ★ ★
It steers its own clock hands to an inexplicable recognition that stretches the material of time, possibility and other lifetimes, though none be more important than the lifetime sitting in front of them. A quick, many-lifetimes kind of romance, but only this one matters most. Great for a cooler, rusty, dusky season. Seasonal atmosphere, set in the UK, The Fate of Us turns into the textures of a small town Whitby. Sapphic and scenic, this karmic reincarnation/past lives-Inspired novella sits in earthy tones and leans into the gravel of fated difference. Content Warning: Death of a parent. Adoption. MY FULL REVIEW for The Fate of Us can be found here - 4 S T A R S to The Fate of Us7) A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer- Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ RTC!8) A Million Worlds With You by Claudia Gray - Rating ★ ★ ★ ★
As iterated in my review for A Thousand Pieces of You a very individual conceptualised palm-print inspired by the mystique of dimensional universe travel is a great way to describe this book. It always draws back to family, love, relationships, choices made, the novelty of a unique experience and evinces the complexity of who we might become given a different life, in choosing a different path. Even as the narrative discourses with fate, scientific probability, possibility and fated outcomes, the display of imperfection within each character always brings it back to relativity. Creative, interesting and inventive it, summons a diverse cut from the common crop. Content Warning/Listing: Violence, widespread death and demise. Descriptions of accidents and injury. Death. MY FULL REVIEW for A Million Worlds With You can be found here - 4 S T A R S to A Million Worlds With YouI hope you've enjoyed the offerings of my four-month reading post, but more than that, I truly hope you've been surrounded by the joys of your own selected good reads. Stay safe and well reader friends. I love interacting with fellow readers and hearing about reader opinion, so if you'd like to talk books or about your own recent reads, get in touch and comment below! H A P P Y R E A D I N G ___________________________ M Y R A T I N G S Y S T E M: ★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read ___________________________ _________________________________ R E L A T E D P O S T S: ● January/February Reading Wrap Up 2023 ● November/December Reading Wrap Up 2022 ● September/October Reading Wrap Up 2022 ● July/August Reading Wrap Up 2022 ● May/June Reading Wrap Up 2022 ● March/April Reading Wrap Up 2022 ● January/February Reading Wrap Up 2022 ● November/December Reading Wrap Up 2021 ● September/October Reading Wrap Up 2021 ● July/August Reading Wrap Up 2021 ● May/June Reading Wrap Up 2021 ● March/April Reading Wrap Up 2021 ● January/February Reading Wrap Up 2021 ● November/December Reading Wrap Up 2020 __________________________________ SHARE ON FACEBOOK Leave a comment and let's talk...
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