RatCreature's Journal

With a new year approaching I once again nurse hopes that I might shrink my TBR pile rather than just constantly grow it. (I wish savings were growing like that, no worries about inflation then...)

Anyway, I thought I could crowdsource help what to pick via a ticky box poll. The order is vaguely reverse by date in my ebook collection, and a smaller final section of unread paper books that are unsorted in front of my shelves to nudge me. (I.e. physical books still in an actual pile, rather than sorted properly into a shelf despite being unread)

( poll cut for length )

What I Just Finished Reading

I finished reading All the Feels by Olivia Dade. It was okay and managed to hold my attention (a good thing considering how often I seem to abandon books without actually disliking them these days), but ultimately I didn't like it as much as the first in the series, Spoiler Alert.

What I'm Reading Now

I'm currently reading Home Within Skin by Jem Zero, a SF m/m romance with an alien sex worker and a trans main character, that I somehow came across on twitter and it looked intriguing.

What I'm Reading Next

No idea. Aside from the alien romance I didn't acquire anything to increase the TBR pile even further beyond what I mentioned last week.

What I Just Finished Reading

I finished The Friend by Sigrid Nunez at least (it wasn't very long), but I didn't like it. It continued to feature the dog far too little, had some strange chapter near the end (but not at the end) that seemed to imply actually nothing in the rest of the book was reality, with the suicide in that chapter only being an attempt that the narrator used to start these endless musings about the unsympathetic dead writer and the Great Dane a Dachshund, only to go back to the narrative to show the dog near his death from old age, though not outright dying. It still hits you in the tender place of pet euthanasia feelings.

I haven't finished any of the other books. *sigh*

What I'm Reading Now

Still stuck in The Bride Test by Helen Hoang, but I haven't started anything else.

What I'm Reading Next

In addition to the books I mentioned last week, I also got the second of Naomi Novik's Scholomance series, that's out now.

What I Just Finished Reading

I haven't finished any books last week, though I reread some longer fanfic (mainly the Raptors in the Rainforest series).

What I'm Reading Now

I haven't started any new books over the last week, so the most recently opened are still the second in the Stone Shifters series, Stonewing Guardian by Zoe Chant, and The Bride Test by Helen Hoang. I did get a little further into the second one.

What I'm Reading Next

No idea. I haven't acquired any additional books last week either, so hopefully something from the existing pile of unread and half-read books might become read? I have seen an announcement for a new romance by Lee Welch, Seducing the Sorcerer, coming out this week, and I loved their previous fantasy m/m romance Salt Magic, Skin Magic, so I might check out this new one.

What I Just Finished Reading

The reading slump is ongoing, and I did not finish anything. :(

What I'm Reading Now

I haven't exactly abandoned the second in the Stone Shifters series, Stonewing Guardian by Zoe Chant, but didn't get any further either. I started The Bride Test by Helen Hoang, but annoyingly the accented letters in names didn't display on my ereader, even though they show if I open the epub on my computer, and I have no idea what my ereader's issue is or what setting to change. I also started a contemporary m/m romance, Off Balance by Jay Hogan, which I saw featured on a recent Smart Bitches, Trashy Books cover awe post, and it was only 0.89 € and had an intriguing opening.

What I'm Reading Next

No idea, still hoping to reduce the half-read pile of books I didn't dislike but somehow stopped reading anyway.

What I Just Finished Reading

I actually read the book I mentioned as reading next last week: Role Model by Rachel Reid (Game Changers #5), a m/m hockey romance. It was pretty good, though I didn't like it as much as my favorite of the series, Tough Guy.

What I'm Reading Now

I did not get back to His Valet by S.M. LaViolette (Victorian Decadence #2), but tried another book by the same author Melissa and the Vicar, and I liked the beginning quite a lot, but then it started to get tense with the heroine fearing discovery and I just couldn't cope.

I then switched gear, and checked out Stoneskin Dragon by Zoe Chant, because the second of that series came out and I remembered having the first in my TBR pile without reading it, and so now I'm 75 pages into that.

What I'm Reading Next

Maybe I'll get back to one of the dozen half read books? Just now I'm also listening to a the latest episode of the Learning the Tropes podcast about Morning Glory Milking Farm by C.M. Nascosta, which the hosts seem to really like and well, I do I enjoy xeno (though I'm more neutral on milking, but it seems there is more to the plot). So I might check that one out.

What I Just Finished Reading

I've read a kinky, historical m/f erotic romance, His Harlot by S.M. LaViolette (Victorian Decadence #1). I didn't finish any of the previous books, but I read some fanfic. Still haven't got the doomscrolling reading under control, though. :(

What I'm Reading Now

I didn't start any additional books.

What I'm Reading Next

Who knows. I might try the next in that Victorian Decadence series. The sneak peak in the first book was intriguing, though the setup of a woman choosing to live as male and then the story apparently going back to an ultimately m/f romance, after the hero has been angsting for a while that he's attracted to somebody male-presenting, isn't my favorite trope (from the excerpt it's not really clear why they chose their male gender presentation, i.e. whether it's just for job opportunities or something closer to a modern transman or genderfluid or what, but the pronouns are "she/her" in her POV).

What I Just Finished Reading

Again not much this week. I read Prince of Air and Darkness (The Darkest Court, #1) by M.A. Grant, a paranormal m/m romance. It was a fast read and intriguing with world building hooks, though I wasn't thrilled that one of couple apparently regularly tortures other fae as part of his fairy court position, even if they are more resilient than humans. At least the information he got in the plot relevant instance was part of a trap, and the torture didn't work for intelligence gathering. So the plot didn't implicitly endorse it as unsavory but effective (which I loathe as trope).

I also read some fanfic.

What I'm Reading Now

I actually started reading Death at the Crystal Palace by Jennifer Ashley, i.e. Kat Holloway #5, before the paranormal romance above, but kind of got stuck around page 80, and switched books. It's not that it was bad, but by the last book I was already a bit impatient with the drawn out yet repetitive revelations about Daniel McAdam and his secretive government or government-adjacent investigator/fixer/secret agent job, and this looks to turn out more of the same.

Though I still hope there'll be finally some follow through. I feel like teasers should only be strung out for so long, or I start to feel cheated, and five books is pushing it. With longer series I actually want to find out more things about a character, not constantly have the same thing left dangling.

What I'm Reading Next

Probably the next of M.A. Grant's The Darkest Court series? I picked up all three in some sale, and the world building and overarching plot hooks worked better than the romantic couple in the first.

What I Just Finished Reading

I finished Subtle Blood by K.J. Charles, the third in the Will Darling Adventures series, and enjoyed it as much as the previous two.

I also read Not Safe For Work by L.A. Witt, a BSDM m/m romance that was a freebie, and I had hoped would deliver what it said on the tin, but it really didn't have a lot of kink in it, but was mostly workplace outing and angst (one is an important client for the firm the other works at) that was both boring and somewhat contrived. A little bondage with quick release handcuffs, a cock cage, one semi-public mild rope bondage scene at a party (that got aborted) and one scene with hot wax was about the extent of the BDSM, aside from elaborate extra safe word negotiations that seemed ridiculous overkill for the kind of sex they were having. I know this list sounds like at least a decent amount of sex, but this book was not short, over 104k words.

Wait, actually there was a fucking machine contraption with a dildo too, but it somehow was made so boring that I already almost forgot about it. I tend to enjoy that kind of thing if conveys some objectification feelings or something, but this was merely mechanical. The whole power exchange that supposedly was taking place was not really felt in the POV, and it was all very rote and just a pile of stuff being used. It never actually felt like reading D/s sex scenes, though part of it was that we remained only in one POV (the Dom's). Normally I enjoy orgasm denial quite a lot in fiction too, but t never actually got into the head of the character wearing the toy. Well, at least I didn't pay anything for this.

I also read the two LitenVerse novellas by Nino Cipri, Finna and Defekt. Those were both fun with an kind of Evil!IKEA type corporation that somehow manages to generate interdimensional portals (somewhat by accident) through an extra confusing store layout and to exploit them for corporate storage and production advantages, while the unintentional side effects are borne by low wage employees who have to recover lost customers and deal with sentient furniture. The whole setup is more surrealist and metaphor than consistent intricate worldbuilding, but a lot of the individual elements are fun and very vivid. I liked the second novella about a corporate clone discovering his identity more than the first, though both were quick, entertaining reads.

What I'm Reading Now

I haven't started anything new yet, though I didn't finish that military romance from last week either, so I guess technically still that?

What I'm Reading Next

No idea.

What I Just Finished Reading

The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard managed to break through my reading slump. The gradual discovery of the world was satisfying, though I'd still would have liked maps, a glossary, a list of characters and mythological figures, timelines and generally all sorts of appendices. It doesn't end with a cliffhanger as such (generally it is fairly low tension) but even after 950 pages I still wanted to spend more time there, so I went right on to read the sequel, The Return of Fitzroy Angursell, which I also liked, but not quite as much. But I also subscribed to the author's mailing list to be notified whenever the next book that is mentioned in the end notes comes out.

I then read Upsy-Daisy Dom by Tanya Chris (Hell's Bedroom #3), mostly because I wanted to see how the overarching plot concludes, even though I had various issues with the second part of the series, that nearly made me nope out. This one was better, but I can't say I'd recommend the series.

Today I read After the Storm by Hannah Birchwood, Key Dyson & Raymond Roach, which is a bit of an odd mix of post-apocalyptic SF and angsty recovery fic of a very sweet if a bit annoyingly (if understandably) low self-esteem main character, with quite a lot of sex, but not really a romance. It was a bit pricey for an ebook at just over €9, as my willingness to buy ebooks drops quite a bit around €5, when then instead of buying I tend to look to just borrow them as I rarely reread anyway. But this is self-published, so not available to borrow, and the sample hooked me.

What I'm Reading Now

Currently I am reading Something Human by A. J. Demas, a pseudo-historical m/m romance (an invented ancient civilization, but as far as I can tell not with fantasy mixed in).

What I'm Reading Next

No idea.