It’s almost summer, and I can’t figure out if I want summer lovin (have me a blast) or to pretend it’s Christmas and very cold. Good thing we have books and I can do both!
Sponsored by Lulu’s Café by T. I. Lowe, new in mass-market paperback from Tyndale House Publishers.
When Leah Allen, a damaged young woman, is given a chance to reclaim her life in a small South Carolina town, she must reckon with the dark secrets she left behind. Soon Leah meets Crowley Mason, the most eligible bachelor in town. Crowley is wary of Leah’s mysterious arrival, but despite his reserve, something sparks between them that can’t be denied. Can Leah allow herself to truly love and be loved, especially when her first urge is to run?
Over on Book Riot
I’m still not over my incapability to say the word Patreon, but Trisha and I talked about books, people who make them, and people who peddle them on When In Romance.
Laura pulled together romantic books for the introverted MBTI types, which included a combination of romances and other romantic stories. She also made one that is mostly romance for the extroverted MBTI types.
Shireen explores what The Chai Factor means to her as a reader and a Muslim.
If you’re new to Kissing Books, you can check out some of my older content, either about books that make you hungry or royals who’ve found themselves in situations.
And between now and July 15, you can enter to win a Kindle Oasis.
Deals
Have you finished Kennedy Ryan’s Hoops series? Do you now find yourself in need of more of her stuff? Check out Flow, the first in her Grip series, for 99 cents. The others aren’t very expensive either.
Or if you’re looking for the newest combination of sexy and funny, Kendall Ryan’s Junk Mail is 3.99. Sexy selfie, wrong number. Do I have to say more?
And if you have not yet had the chance to read one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors, Let It Shine by Alyssa Cole is 99 cents this week! Enjoy a belated Juneteenth celebration with Sofie and Ivan and their fellow Freedom Riders.
New Releases
This was another good week for books, and I even managed to read a couple of them this time.
Hither, Page
Cat Sebastian
When Cat started hinting that she was working on a personal project away from the norm of her oeuvre, many of us were intrigued. When she started bandying about the tagline “Agatha Christie, But Make It Gay”, we were actively grabbing for it. When she let me see it before release date, there might have been actual squealing.
And when I managed to read the damn thing before its release date? Yeah. That was great.
Leo Page is an intelligence officer for one of the…shadier organizations in His Majesty’s service. While he spent most of his time abroad during the bloodiest war the world had ever seen, he’s now been dispatched to a small village where a charwoman has been murdered. Once there, he encounters the town’s young doctor, who might have pulled a bullet out of him in France. The pair are immediately drawn to each other, even though Leo’s work means he has to equivocate at every turn. Regardless, they each work to their own abilities to figure out what happened, particularly as James works through his own PTSD.
If a (pretty bloodless) murder mystery is less your thing, maybe check out The Love Song of Sawyer Bell by Avon Gale, which was pulled from its previous release and released with Carina Press this week. When Juilliard student Sawyer auditions to play fiddle on Victoria Vincent’s summer tour, she is delighted to discover her passion for music again. She also discovers her passion for Vix, the band’s lead singer and Sawyer’s first crush, or so she supposes. She’s only just admitted to herself that she’s attracted to women very recently, and Vix offers a friends-with-benefits style introduction to the sapphic pleasures of the flesh. But their friendship (and whatever more it may become) can only last the length of summer, after which Sawyer has to figure out where her heart lies. This is the first solo Avon Gale title I’ve read (I’ve read books she’s written with authors like Piper Vaughn and Roan Parrish), and I like her style. I’ll definitely check out more of her solo stuff.
Other new titles I’m looking forward to checking out:
Stay for Awhile by BriAnn Danae
Parental Guidance by Avery Flynn
Undercover Affection by Charlene Namdhari
Some Like It Scandalous by Maya Rodale
Two Nights in Paris by Delaney Diamond
One Monsoon in Mumbai by Anitha Perinchery
But first, I’m gonna finish watching A Discovery of Witches.
As usual, catch me on Twitter @jessisreading or Instagram @jess_is_reading, or send me an email at jessica@riotnewmedia.com if you’ve got feedback, bookrecs, or just want to say hi!