what i'm reading right now

First Time Caller - Hey so this was delightful! I was not the biggest fan of Borison’s previous series. It was cute and it was set in Maryland (which is cool and local ish!) but it was missing some sort of magic or chemistry or unnamable THING for me. She finds it here. First Time Caller is inspired by Sleepless and Seattle but does not get too bogged down by trying to match it plot for plot. Lucie, our heroine, does have a daughter who calls into a Delilah After Dark style radio show so her mom can find love and Aiden, the host of said show, is severely disenchanted (willfully!) with love. But there are lots of cool extras here! It is set in Baltimore! (Please note that it is a liiiiittle too white, this book) Lucie is a mechanic! There is healthy co-parenting and a sweet blended family! Borison strikes a delicate balance in the crafting of Aiden, what with his refusal to commit, his slutty gold chain, his habit of wearing only worn sweatshirts, and the fact that his only memory of his last hookup is the cannoli he ate on the walk home. The inclusion of his happy family that just happens to be marked by repeated battles with cancer (fair content warning here!) as well as his really adorable crush on Lucie saves him from being the stereotypical situationship fuck boy type. He is self aware enough to know he is making the wrong decisions and Lucie does in fact call him on his shit. It feels like growth to meet the grand gesture at the end. I especially loved that our epilogue didn’t do a huge jump to marriage and happy familydom. Aiden is dating Lucie who happens to have a daughter (a very cool twelve-year-old with Indiana Jones cosplay and a crush on Aragorn) and Aiden does not need to be her dad or immediately move in…they can all just hang out together as families and friends and lovers do. There is no rush to their romance. All they have to do is try. It felt so real to me and, and despite the cancer subplot trauma, it was a relatively light read. I can’t wait for Jackson, Aiden’s neurotic best friend and the station’s weather man, to get his own book. 

Kate Daniels - I read too many contemporaries I enjoyed in a row so I had to break my streak with a long paranormal series…Ilona Andrews is back (in my hands)! I have come to think of this as the Ilona Andrews special: A woman too competent to deal with a man’s performative masculinity! Please be useful or go away! It does not matter if you are hot…in the immortal words of Shania Twain, “that don’t impress me much!”

Kate Daniels is a bit grittier, gruesome, and more violent than Hidden Legacy or the Innkeepers felt. Vampires are basically horrific piloted drones?? It is a bizarre set up. She is a magical mercenary solving crimes and the hero is some sort of underworld Lion Shifter King? I honestly do not know. Normally, this would be too much for me but somehow the Andrews duo pulls me in every time! I think if you’ve ever loved A League of Extraordinary Gentleman, anything steampunk, that Atlantis cartoon movie, X-Men but make it even more nonsensical, pre-sobriety Stephen King books: this might be for you. Just know that I am reading these books and just slotting new creatures and details into “maybe good guys” or “maybe bad guys” categories. I am eternally grateful no one will force me to say many of the words in these books out loud! Only a very deft writer at the wheel can make me hang on to a romance that will span 10 books and likely have no relationship until at least book 4.

I’ve slogged through a few more things this week. One was The Bourbon Boys series by Victoria Wilder which features really great pulp cover art and less of an attractive plot. There was a little too much about the making of bourbon, about horses, and about witness protection. It got a little too close to the J6 index for me. If any of those things interest you, I would recommend. Because I am Type A, I will still be along for book 3’s release but you can scratch the same itch by watching the Harrison Ford classic, Witness. 

Julia Olivia’s Never Harbor series keeps chugging along. It has lost some of its magic and I see why Olivia is holding Peter as the last book’s hero. Number one, he still sucks and number two, all the stories in between have lost their Peter Pan connection. The third book involves the youngest sibling, a lost young artist gal, and her employer? Mentor? Crush? He is only eight years older and I don’t know, in the age of so much billionaire/secretary and nanny romance, it does not feel like a scandal. I was really over the “small town is mad at the man” and the “you took advantage of my sister!” She is 21. Peter, get your shit together and worry about yourself! You all know way too much about each other! Let her live! The romance itself was cute but I felt a little burned out on the whole deal. All my talk about loving a series has come to bite me in the ass.

what else is taking up my brain space:

• THIS incredibly well researched substack by Tori Loves HEAs (a great follow) about all the Dramoine books. I am not going to wade in on what people should be buying or writing or reading EVER but I might steer clear of these myself.

• Washington Post saying the same thing everyone has said over and over. Covers gotta sell and the clinch is technically BACK in animated form sooooOOOoooooo miss me with this.

• Does anyone want to just tell me everything that happens in Great Big Beautiful Life? I have FOMO even though I don’t feel the desire to read it yet (and I can still read things eventually even if I know spoilers). When I was little, one of the things I remember most is asking my mom the plot of virtually anything, specifically things I was not yet old enough to watch or read. I know every Stephen King book’s plot for this reasons. My son recently has started asking me the same thing about everything from Star Wars to Jurassic Park to the book in my hand and it brings me such joy.

• As someone who has spent most of their working life in retail, tariffs are going to suck! For people at work, people at home, people with tiny humans, people with dogs, etc etc. Support the small stores you love and remember you can usually find a way to buy second hand (Pangobooks is a new one I have started buying and selling on!). Libraries too are always there when you need them.

Thanks to everyone for reading this ten weeks in a row now…how are you not sick of me yet?

talk soon,

Britt