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Novel Gazing is your destination for all things literary fiction, bringing you news from the world of fiction, and recommendations for under the radar reads, works in translation, buzzy books, and more. Stay in the know, expand your TBR and your view of literary fiction, and, of course, have some laughs with hosts Mary Kay McBrayer and Louise Johnson. Novel Gazing is a biweekly show available wherever you get your podcasts–go listen to episode one now!
It’s Monday again. I know they come every seven days, but seriously. They need to stop.
Let’s talk love.
News and Useful Links
Are you more of a conference person than a convention person? I have come to realize I am more a fan of sitting and being talked at about things than waiting in line to meet people. So I’m super excited to go to the BGSU Researching the Romance Conference in April. Last I checked, there were 35 seats left. So if you really want to go, get on it.
(If you are into the whole meeting people thing, though, you should definitely check out Book Lovers Con in March and Girl Have You Met in April. And Romance Slam Jam in May. Or if you’re really down for an adventure, RARE is in Edinburgh this year.)
There are a lot of romance things happening for charity, if you want to check them all out:
- Penny Reid, Sierra Simone, Kennedy Ryan, and a bunch of other romance authors came together to put together AUSTRALIA: A Romance Anthology to benefit firefighters and wildlife in—you guessed it—Australia.
- The folks at RomanceClass have put together an ebook bundle to benefit the relief efforts after the Taal volcano eruption in the Philippines. At the moment the bundle is 19 books and bids start at ten dollars.
- The Romance for PR auction has been open for fewer than 48 hours and they’ve already surpassed their goal, but it’s still open for anyone who wants to contribute to the relief efforts for the people of Puerto Rico, who have really been given a shit deal over the past couple of years.
Alexis Hall is giving us tons of new books!
Read this great interview with Rebekah Weatherspoon.
Deals
Looking for a post-Great War lesbian romance? How to Talk to Nice English Girls by Gretchen Evans is 2.99 right now (or free with KU). (Also, the cover has that kind of lovely Well of Loneliness feel to it that inspires me to buy the paperback.) This has a quiet young English woman and the brash American girl who comes to her family home for a wedding, and I really need to know why people haven’t been throwing this book at me. (Or maybe they were when it came out and I’ve already forgotten.)
Recs!
I’ve had one of those months where I pick up a bunch of things and set them aside, not because of the content but because I couldn’t hold onto anything. Love Her or Lose Her, for example, was giving me hella feels and I just walked away from it one day and never picked it back up. I’ve mostly been filling the mental gap with novellas, which I haven’t been completely successful with but I managed to make it through one or two.
Baggage Claimed
Alexandra Warren
I don’t recall exactly how I came across this one; someone I follow on Twitter had screenshot a line or passage and I was like “yeah, I’m gonna have to try that out.” You know that meme that starts out relatively normal and ends with “get on a plane to a new place and start a new life”? That’s sort of what Ryan does. She’s just been dumped by her boyfriend of three years at her birthday party (when everyone thought he was going to propose) and somehow finds herself getting a flight to anywhere, just to get away. A reckless decision leads to another, and another, until feelings get in the way.
And don’t blame me if you throw your book, Kindle, or other reading device. It’s super well-crafted.
Taken
Charlotte Stein
I picked this little book up at a library book sale ages ago, and really needed to be in the right mood for it. Up front, this book includes a young woman being non-consensually chained up in a basement…and liking it. Having been unknowing sidekick to a friend with a grudge who TRIED TO BURN DOWN A RARE BOOKSTORE WHAT, Rosie is the one who gets caught by the shopkeeper, who tucks her away in his office/bedroom to keep her there while he calls the cops. But then he decides not to call…but there are some issues with the apparatus he used to keep her there. Meanwhile, she is not only sort of feeling being trapped, but by Johann in particular, a big hairy werewolf (not actually) of a man who just wants to let her go and get on with his life.
I’ve got Jay Northcote’s Passing Through and Dance All Night by Alexis Daria on standby for the next time I have trouble getting into one of the giant pile of longer books I need to pick up. We’ll see what happens next.
What are you reading this week?
As usual, catch me on Twitter @jessisreading or Instagram @jess_is_reading, or send me an email at wheninromance@bookriot.com if you’ve got feedback, bookrecs, or just want to say hi!