List: romance

Cover of A Succession of Bad Days.

A Succession of Bad Days

by Graydon Saunders · published 2015 · read 2021-05-17

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Following The March North is not easy in any way, and yet, Saunders manages. Same world, directly after the events of the first book – but in a completely different role, keeping only side characters around. I'm very into this sort of continuity. Especially when it gives me civil engineering Hogwarts for severely overpowered magic users. Hell yes. The book sums it up best: "like a fairy-tale lost in a civil engineering manual."

Cover of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 2016 · read 2020-08-18

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Cover of Red, White & Royal Blue.

Red, White & Royal Blue

by Casey McQuiston · published 2019 · read 2019-07-07

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston is a rom-com, pure and simple. It's light-hearted, it's witty, it doesn't feel like "Hello, fellow kids" – what more do you want?

Cover of The Cold Between.

The Cold Between

by Elizabeth Bonesteel · published 2016 · read 2021-11-19

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Genuinely enjoyable space opera with a bit of mystery and romance, where everybody has a brain, and a character, motivations and grievances, and different opinions on each other (which is nice with multiple POV characters).

Cover of Silver in the Wood.

Silver in the Wood

by Emily Tesh · published 2019 · read 2020-02-20

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Good forest fairytale. Heavier on the "hurt" side of hurt/comfort that I initially thought. Good characters, good writing, and only a bit low on substance.

Cover of The Magpie Lord.

The Magpie Lord

by K.J. Charles · published 2013 · read 2020-06-30

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Romance, mysterious curse, estate management: A queer/gay romance in a fantasy version of Victorian England. The youngest exiled son of a lord returns to England after his father and brother die, and has to contest with the curse that led to their deaths. Luckily, he finds a strange but attractive young wizard blah blah blah, you see where this ends. Very atmospheric, and too well-written to deserve to be labeled as "enjoyable trash".

Cover of Shards of Honour.

Shards of Honour

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1986 · last read 2020-07-04

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

I re-read "Shards of Honour" somewhat by accident while looking up a quote for a writing exercise. I had remembered it as a decent first entry in brilliant series: Okay sci-fi, but nothing special.

Cover of Captain Vorpatril's Alliance.

Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 2012 · read 2020-08-16

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Captain Ivan Vorpatril finally gets his own book, after decades – both in our world and theirs – of grumbling in Miles' shadow. Unfortunately for him, he gets his book at the point in life when Miles' bad habits have finally rubbed off enough to push him into a chivalrous-if-ill-advised wedding. Bujold has the decency to show up front that this will be a romance, so that the inclined reader doesn't have to fret about the ending, and just gets to guess how she'll bring it off.

Cover of A Brother's Price.

A Brother’s Price

by Wen Spencer · published 2005 · read 2020-04-30

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

This is comfort food, but it's GOOD comfort food. Fantasy world with inverted gender roles (only one man per 20 women, group family marriages ensue). It follows the Regency romance arc perfectly except for leaving out that relationship building part in the second third, which actually might've been better to include. But it's really enjoyable – takes the gender role reversal seriously, isn't stupid about it, but also clearly just has a lot of fun telling the story.

Cover of A Case of Possession.

A Case of Possession

by K.J. Charles · published 2014 · read 2021-08-03

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

For the first part of the series, I called it “too well-written to deserve to be labeled as enjoyable trash”. The language of this second part remains well done, but the writing … not as much. It's more over-the-top, tryhard – when it doesn't really need to try hard, being itself would be enough: Magic Victorian lover boys return to the dirty city and deal with giant rats and prejudice while alternating between horniness and relationship drama. It's not bad, but the charm of the first part has worn off a bit. I'm not planning to read the next part any time soon, but I imagine at some point I'll be sick or tired or just in need of a comfort read, and I'll come back to the series then.

Cover of A Kiss With Teeth.

A Kiss With Teeth

by Max Gladstone · published 2014 · read 2021-11-22

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Max Gladstone short story: Sweet in its way (which is not a thing Gladstone does, usually), but nothing special.

Cover of The Cybernetic Tea Shop.

The Cybernetic Tea Shop

by Meredith Katz · published 2016 · read 2021-09-05

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Short, sweet queer sci-fi romance, telling the story of a world where production of humanoid robots has been banned, but the last remaining ones are allowed to live out their life. Ace robot trope though.

Cover of Der Trotzkopf.

Der Trotzkopf

by Emmy von Rhoden · published 1883 · read 2004-03-01

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Luckily you cannot read this book in earnest anymore – times have changed too much. So if you read of the far-too-wild, far-too-stubborn young Ilse, who has to go to a boarding school to learn manners, and who is slowly "tamed" by her new friends and teachers until she turns into a young lady, you can feel amused or offended (depending on your temperament) instead of feeling pressured to do the same.

Cover of Soulless.

Soulless

by Gail Carriger · published 2009 · read 2020-07-22

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Victorian London, just with vampires and werewolves – both of which very proper and integrated – and propriety, corsets, hats, gossip, and all other Victorian stereotypes. It's Urban Fantasy, complete with the sassy, abrasive, clever, female protagonist and a handsome werewolf.

Cover of Widdershins.

Widdershins

by Jordan L. Hawk · published 2012 · read 2022-01-13

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Popcorn read: Victorian encounters with the paranormal continue, but this time it's in the US. A timid philologist from a wealthy family (have to do without nobility in the US, after all) meets a Dresden-style magician for hire. They need to solve a mystery that has its solution foreshadowed so strongly, I nearly couldn't see the text under all the shadow.

Cover of Flight of Magpies.

Flight of Magpies

by K.J. Charles · published 2014 · read 2022-01-23

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

More from the ever-same dramatic duo with the uncomfortably unhealthy Ds overtones. An old enemy returns for lack of interesting new ones, a new ally spawns in just to be hot and awesome. If not for the overly yikes and predictable parts, I might be interested to see where the series goes after escalating towards the end, but I think I'll stop here.

Cover of Salt Magic, Skin Magic.

Salt Magic, Skin Magic

by Lee Welch · published 2018 · read 2022-01-12

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

More Victorian urban history queer romance with an aristocrat with evil family and a lower-class magician – please somebody tell my why this is such a huge thing. I could do without the repetitiveness and the everything while just enjoying parts of the setting.

Cover of The Curse of Chalion.

The Curse of Chalion

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 2001 · read 2021-04-25

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Bujold has a type. The type here being "adult physically broken but very clever reluctant hero, who meddles with aristocracy without being a ruler himself". It's not like they are the same person: there are differences between Miles Vorkosigan and Cazaril. Caz had a much worse life and less privileges, and is also less (over-)confident. But the parallels are very much there.

Cover of The City of Brass.

The City of Brass

by S.A. Chakraborty · published 2017 · read 2021-09-04

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Set in Napoleonic Egypt, this is the story of Djinn, Daeva and related beings. Didn't do much for me – the concept of a hidden city of supernatural beings with tons of infighting sounded intriguing, and the stagesetting very promising, but. The protagonist is kind of flat and predictably Chosen (doesn't remember her childhood, knows magic language, has special powers, is very poor), and the dynamic between her and her semi-romantic sidekick fell extremely flat.