It’s nearing the end of summer and while I added a lot of books to my TBR pile since the start of the year, I managed to read and finish only a few of them. I updated my Goodreads page with my thoughts. Here’s a quick snapshot and a few highlights:
While I do a LOT of reading as an editor, there are times I absolutely just want to kick back and read something for pleasure. As a writer of sapphic romance, I read widely in that genre. I also tend toward women’s fiction, because I like to read stories where women pursue their own happiness or recover from setbacks.
I found new books by old favorite authors (Gina L. Dartt and Jae) and picked up some free or on-sale introductions to new authors (J.J. Arias and Rachel Lacey) that I quite enjoyed.
There’s one I found error-riddled enough that it interfered with much potential enjoyment of the story. A lot of them were “light fare” – formulaic or trope-driven, but with thoughtfully drawn characters, if not always completely rounded. But as I said, I do occasionally want to relax when reading, so these fit the bill.
I was most often engaged with the setting for its novelty (Canada’s New Brunswick isn’t usually one of the settings I’ve found stories) or it’s familiarity (the stories of Arias’s Goode Girls series all take place in Florida). There is also definitely a trend toward shorter reads. The longest I read was only 75k. Most were just a thousand or so longer than Nano-length (50k). I remember when books were “meaty” – 100k easy. Even the historicals I read spent few words developing setting.
I didn’t just read through Kindle though, so even this list is only partial. There’s probably half a dozen more books I read on my nook or in general EPUB format. And quite a few were the freebie sent for signing up to an author’s newsletter.
Speaking of that, you will get a freebie, too, if you sign up to my newsletter.
Lara Zielinsky 