alarm?

Keep This Off The Record

Arden Joy

In this fun queer romance novel the story is told from the perspective of Abby and Freya.
Abby and Freya went to high school together and hated each other’s guts.
At a school reunion Abby’s best friend and Freya’s work colleague hit it off.
This puts this bickering pair back in each other’s lives.
The author takes some bits from Much Ado About Nothing to power a couple of the plots in the story and it’s not subtly done. I kind of wish that it was less obvious.
My favourite thing though was that the leads are people who make mistakes and act in actually human ways. I’ve read a few too many romance novels with unrealistic leads in the past few years.
Certainly worth a read and it won’t take you very long to get through.

Rating: B

gondola?

The Family You Make

Jill Shalvis

Levi and Jane have a near death incident during a crazy snowstorm at a ski resort. Thinking that they’re going to die Levi tells his mother that he’s found the one an that he’s with her.
A pretty enjoyable fake dating romance with likeable lead characters.
Jill Shalvis is always reliable for a romance you can get a little lost in.

Rating: B

anxious?

Fangirl (The Manga) Volume 1

Sam Maggs

This is a manga adaptation of the beloved YA novel by Rainbow Rowell which I have read several times. It’s the story of Cath and what happens when she goes to college.
This didn’t really felt like it added anything new or revealing above the original story. It’s very nicely done but not something that really needed to exist.
This is only part one though so I should check out part two at some point.

Rating: B

gallery?

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care

Ashley Herring Blake

Delilah is a cool tattooed art photographer struggling to make ends meet. So when her estranged stepsister Astrid offers her a lot of money to photograph her wedding she finds herself back in her hometown for two weeks. While there she will fall for someone unexpected.
A fun queer romance between a lesbian and a bisexual woman with some nice family stuff in the background. Really quite enjoyable

Rating: B

investment?

The Rhesus Chart

Charles Stross

Bob Howard discovers that Vampires are a real thing through data analysis. Identifying an active cell he infiltrates a bank only to discover that leader of the cell is his former girlfriend.
Forced to bring her and her colleagues into the Laundry fold he gets caught in the middle of a tactical battle between two old and powerful vampires.
I was working my way through the Laundry Files as audiobooks and reached this one and had to switch to read the ebook instead. The banking vampires were just too annoying to listen to!
This is a pretty good Laundry book and probably the last before the Stross’ taste for bleak shit gets too much for me.

Rating: B

starter?

Accidentally Engaged

Farah Heron

Reena is a great baker with a loving but interfering family.
Desperate to enter a couples’ cooking competition she persuades her next door neighbour to pretend to be engaged.
This a sweet little ‘fake engaged’ story with some interesting insight into a particular segment of American Muslim society.
It’s an engaging read but it’s not much more than that.

Rating: B