What We Reading: Current Reading, Recently Finished and Anxiety Stalled

 

Hi Hi, how we been y'all?

So I been meaning to update y'all on my reading adventures for YEARS now. Heck, the first post on this blog was a list of books I wanted to read. Sidebar: I definitely never got around to reading ANY of those books. 

However, ya girl kinda fell by the wayside in more recent years when it comes to reading. Life, adulthood, work, school, and much much more simply got in the way. But slowly but surely I am making my way back to my first love and hobby. Now I'm still not at my high school reading level (How in the sweet Jesus was I reading 5-10 books a week?) Now I have a bad habit these days of going into either a physical bookstore or my Kindle bookstore and browsing the books. Then I have an even worse habit of buying like 5 books at a time and not reading a single one. You should have seen my nightstand last year before I got these bookshelves.

But I am rambling, as usual. So without much fanfare here is what I'm currently reading.

A Duke, The Lady, and A Baby by Vanessa Riley: I'm very much a cover and title girl. An interesting cover or title is the swiftest way for me to grab a book and this title for sure captured my eye. I was shopping in Barnes and Noble for a gift for my best friend and the lil' voice in my head said I needed new books. I listened. 

I initially did not grab this title because I needed to finish the 12 books from last year, and the gift went for wasn't ready. So I got two other books and told myself I'd get this one when I went back for the gift. 

This is such an interesting story. I love the female lead, Patience Jordan, she will do anything for that lil baby. And the male lead, Busick Strathmore, Duke of Repington is the definition of a reformed rake but he's even better because he has a rude awakening when it comes to babies and timelines. Also, this baby most definitely has both the leads tied around his teeny tiny hands. 

Another part of the story I love and enjoy is the mystery that is tied in. I am so intrigued by this main story and I'm enjoying seeing how it plays out. The mystery and the unraveling of the antagonist's machinations have me looking forward to seeing what will happen next. 

Given this is the first book in Riley's new series Rogues and Remarkable Women, which means we are slowly being introduced into a new universe and cast of characters. I haven't even finished this book yet and I absolutely need to know the next story. The female lead's friend and confidante, Jemina St. Maur, also has her own secrets and I absolutely, positively am on the edge of my seat ready to read all about it.

Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai: Alisha Rai has done it again for me. I initially began reading Alisha Rai through free books of hers I found on my Kindle, so when I saw The Right Swipe in the bookstore last year I immediately grabbed it off the shelf. I basically swallowed that book whole and began the impatient wait for the next book  Girl Gone Viral. And boy was it worth the wait. 

Again I devoured the book WHOLE. Every waking chance I got I was reading it. And the next thing I know it was all over. That wasn't fun at all. 

When you meet Katrina King in The Right Swipe you are intrigued by and immediately ready to know more. Where Rihannon is a hurt badass force to be reckoned with, she is confident in her skills and very obviously wildly protective of Katrina. And we all see why. Katrina is sweet, humble, and dealing with a lot of trauma from her past. So I couldn't wait to see who the resident former beauty model turned reclusive angel investor would fall in love with. And OH MY GOODNESS is this man scrumptious. I just wanna take Jas Singh, Katrina's long-time bodyguard into my arms and hug him forever. (And I hate being the big spoon so that should tell you something.) Jas and Katrina make the perfect reclusive couple. 

I loved the slow burn of this story. The fact they have been right under each other's noses, caring for and supporting the other the best way they knew how. Though they have an employer and employee relationship, their relationship since the beginning held a sense of unrequited mutual attraction. They both have their fears of being in the public eye, the fact that were basically forced to confront their emotions for each other because of someone else's lack of respect for the private lives. I also got to see some of my faves from The Right Swipe again as they all came together to help out our lil recluse.

Also, can we discuss what it means to go viral these days? This novel was amazing in showing how what would have been an otherwise innocent encounter back in ye olden times before all this social media thing, was twisted and corrupted for someone else's gain. As people, I believe we should all take the time to think before we post things online. It's normal to see a cute or funny moment and want to share it with others, but we should all remember that not everyone wants to be a viral moment. Also WHY SOME MAN SO LIE!? That dude from the cafe just wanted to be famous and deserves a kick for trying to spin a casual conversation into an opportunity for himself. 

I simply am too excited and cannot wait to read what Alisha Rai does next. 

The Kissing Game by Marie Hart: A recurring theme with me is my love of romances and my love of rough, dangerous teddy bear male leads. You know the kind of male lead that is a reformed bad boy or probably still is a bad boy. These men are covered in tattoos, brooding, and the only time the world will ever see them be soft is when they are with the women they love.

This is exactly who we meet in the male lead, Axel Heller. I LOVE AXEL HELLER and though it is slightly unrealistic I want an Axel of my own. Our fight ready mechanic of a lead is the absolute sweetest. He gives terrible gifts, is bullheaded, and moves at the pace of a glacier (How you been crushing our good sis for a year and make no moves?) But thank goodness he picked up the pace with the lovely boss lady Rena Jackson. Our baby girl of a female lead deserves effort and care. And once Axel hopped on the get it moving train he definitely picked up the pace.

I know romance novels tend to be exaggerated truths but these characters feel so real to me. It could be the fact that Rena is a black woman, who loves romance novels, just like me. But truly Marie Hart has created a special and lovely lil story world that took me on a truly sweet adventure. I officially want to read ALL the interconnected stories, because these characters and the characters that surround them were introduced in other stories. Maybe over time I'll slowly acquire this lil world and learn even more about these folks.

Dark Illusion by Christine Feehan: Christine Feehan was one of my first forays into the paranormal romance world. Her Dark series which follows the ancient species of Carpathians is quite frankly my all time favourite series. Sadly this has been on my anxiety stalled list for a minute now and I wish I knew why. 

I am super duper ready to see where favourite paranormal species are headed and if they are on the winning streak to defend themselves, their life-mates and their entire species from a bunch of haters. Like that is the only way to describe the antagonists Ms. Feehan has created, HATERS. From Day one, book one the antagonists main reason for existing has to be fueled by the fact they hating on the Carpathians. They basically hate them cause they ain't them. Carpathians are a strong, powerful, family oriented, Keepers of Peace, Protectors of the Weak, honorable set. Their haters include: a powerful dark and odious mage and his legacy of hater, Carpathian men who simply did not do the honourable thing and dead when they realised they could carry on no more (some  of whom are on some 5 hour energy drink kinda life force), humans who want to continue being ugly and disgusting humans without the threat of being bodied by the Carpathians, and the scheming's, dealings and evil of these haters on this ancient warriors. 

Listen, it's a whole ass lot I gotta tell y'all about this series. And I might just do a series review and let y'all know what the tea is about my faves. But just know I would really like for my anxiety to ease up off me and let me plow through this book, cause I definitely have a new book in the series to get.

Get Lucky by Lila Monroe: My taste in books is similar to my taste in most things. Eclectic, diverse, must include romance and must not and cannot leave me with nightmares. (Yet somehow paranormal romances were my BREAD AND BUTTER for years. Go figure.) And when I got my first kindle and found the "free" (Kindle bookstore > Categories > Romance > See All > Filter: Price: Low to High > Enjoy) books in the romance are and I was HOOKED! And that is how I found this lil' number, like so many other books and authors.

This has also got hit by my lovely friend, the anxiety stall, and I don't like it. It seems like a fun story and has one of my favorite tropes, The Vegas Trip, as the plot's spark plug. I'm really curious to see where this novel takes me tbh cause I am intrigued. Maybe now that the election is over and it is confirmed el cheeto puff supreme is done, I might catch my second (or is this my fourth) reading wind of the year and knock this bad boy out.

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn: Don't get upset but this is technically my first Julia Quinn novel, I think. Don't quote me though cause my early days in the US and my high school experience is tracked by my library and Barnes & Nobel hauls. Yes I said hauls. Ya girl here used to walk into the library with no form, clue or idea of what she wanted and walk out with at least two reusable shopping bags worth of books. So there are a lot of books I've read and simply do not remember.

But I digress, that's a story for another day. Back to Madame Julia and her lovely lil family 'The Bridgerton's'.I was inspired to hop on this series once I saw that one of my favourite actresses would be involved and Shonda Rimes. Like Shonda don't miss when it comes to a show. So that was reason enough for me to hop into this series. 

Like most of the other Victorian/Regency family/friend sagas I am hooked on, the novels in this series are a stand-alone. But it is much better and much more entertaining to read them in order, and since I'm no longer a baby, and I work a big girl job I simply bought the entire series on Amazon. I'm tryna finish all nine books by Christmas, so I can gift myself the experience of binging the show on Netflix. So The Duke and I was a lovely lil introduction to this family of eight (I personally could never, but based on how my great grandmother had 11 kids I get how they got there). And what an opening to the series this was.

Daphne Bridgerton, you sweet empathetic angel. You can tell she's the oldest girl with older brothers, simply by how she in the way she interacts with others and steers them where they need to be, even they wanna be stubborn ninnies (cough cough MR DUKE). But I also get the Duke, because baby duke Simon deserved better than that. Reading along as these two banter and flirt around each other was such fun, like you know you like him sis and baby boy, don't be coy that's ya WIFE. My anxiety stall got me stuck about starting the second book because this first novel was such an amazing ride, I simply could not put it down, even when I needed to. 

And last but certainly not the least on this Reading Adventure:

The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory: Ms. Guillory is gonna make me move to California. Simply based on the men she has created. The dating population in real life could be the invisible long lost relative of the trash mountain here in Florida, but Ms. Guillory done made me feel like these amazing, semi-adjusted men do exist. And they want Black women.

But sadly my anxiety is a whore and right when I got to the middle of the book, the real juicy bits when the leads start making all the dumb decisions that are gonna stress your soul out, I got really stressed out in real life. And never recovered. 

But what I am reading so far has me super interested in seeing this HEA (Happily Ever After) all the way to the end. Nikole and Carlos with their real life fears and traumas. Nikole and Carlos having my dream meet cute (but in mine, one of the team's star athletes is my knight in shining armour and my future HEA). 

I've enjoyed how the leads interact with each other and even the people in their lives. Though I'm not the biggest fan of how isolated Nikole feels. It's not that she doesn't have friends, but they do not seem like active parts of her life. The feeling also rubs off on Carlos, even though I know who is friend is we read about him in "The Wedding Date" (again another favourite, not top level like some of my other authours but defineitely a great beach or vacation read). Other than how isolated from real life the characters feel, I should not  feel so stuck trying to finish this book.

Additionally here are a few other novels stuck on my anxiety stalled list:

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey

Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell

Wilde In Love by Eloisa James

Thanks y'all for joining me on this late ass episode of "What We Reading" might be back with another comic list or I might pop back up near the end of the holidays. Who knows, but until next time.