July 24: Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. Comfort reading with guaranteed no steamy sex scenes. (I have a very old copy that I bought in Canada in 1998, and changed the cover of my ebook to a photo of the cover of that copy, because it’s SO much better than the current cover)
Unbreakable Alibi by Freeman Wills Crofts. Clever short story.
July 21: Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade. A “delightfully fun romantic comedy set in the world of fanfiction” according to the blurb. It took me a couple of pages to stop thinking it was Elemental Masters, and I’m not good at plain romance (Straight romance. Whatever.), and the first-chapter protagonist semeed a bit too conceited for my taste (spoiler: it’s a pose) but now I’m past those bumps it’s indeed fun. Sex scenes in the offing, I’ve been told, but if I don’t like those I can always skim or skip. — The first all-out sex scene at about halfway through the book, and it was actually sexy, if they’re all like that I can live with it unless they take up so much story real estate that they drown out the rest (er, they do, a bit, so I’m glad parts of the story need to have other people around so they can’t bang all the time). Some Failure To Communicate (including a REALLY bad case of it), always the bane of romance novels. Some cringes, mostly resolved. The ending — not the HEA but the epilogue — was somewhat unbelievable and didn’t contribute much. I may do an actual blog post.
July 19: The Wizard of London by Mercedes Lackey. Because it seemed to be time for Elemental Masters and I wanted Isabelle Harton rather than anything else. Last read it in mid-2014. Yes, it was due for a reread. The horrific elements didn’t disturb me as much as the first couple of times I read it and the non-plot stuff (people and atmosphere) seemed stronger. Only I still can’t stand eye dialect.
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