Saturday, June 9, 2018

Whatcha Reading? (June 9th)





Bookstuffers, KU cheaters, and horrible authors, oh my! There was quiet a bit going on in the bookish world this week -- some of it going beyond romance, or at the very least including non-romance areas as well. To be quite honest, I didn't even try to keep up with it at all. A lot of it is not news. For example, we've known that some KU authors game the system in order to make the most money from the KU pot, including by stuffing their books with extra content (more pages "read" = more money for them). Amazon finally stepped up and said no more bookstuffing . . . BUT said books could be published that way if it says "compilation" in the title. So guess what many of those KU authors are doing now, which allows them to 'legally' stuff their books and again, get more money from the KU pot. Yeah, it's a mess.




Curious to see a quick recap of my May reads? Check out this thread. 


As to this week: it wasn't the greatest because of one WTF fail [which lead to a funny thread] and one that hit the dreaded "eh . . . it was okay I guess?" mark. But I did enjoy my other two reads, one of which was a poetry book I randomly picked up.







What I Read:


Bachelor Undone by Brenda Jackson
Narrated by Shari Peele
1 Star

✦ City planner taking a much-needed vacation to Jamaica
✦ Former cop/security expert working a case on the island
✦ They know each other through their friends, but don't like each other
✦ Except oops, now they can't keep their hands off each other
✦ The story was . . . eh. Almost no plot, movement, or development to it, and the wrap up was super unsatisfying, quick, and came out of nowhere (I honestly thought there must still be chapters left, only to suddenly get hit with the epilogue.)
✦ But my biggest problem? The sex scenes. Starting with HE USES THE SAME CRUSTY USED CONDOM DURING THEIR ENTIRE NIGHT OF FUCKING. Not exaggerating. Multiple fucks, multiple ejaculations from him, ALL IN THE SAME CONDOM


Want a, IMHO, funny rant about this book? Check out this thread





The Chateau by Tiffany Reisz
4 Stars


✦ Erotic thriller that fucks with your head and has plenty of kink. NOT a romance
✦ As with this entire series, I can only describe it as “it’s complicated but I fucking love it.”
✦ I think this line from an interview with Tiffany sums up the book nicely: "The pitch was, “Kingsley goes on an erotic adventure inside a femme-domme cult.” The story pretty much wrote itself. It’s James Bond with blow jobs, BDSM, and an angst-ridden bisexual hero still in love with his ex-boyfriend"


Find all the quotes I shared HERE





Inside Darkness by Hudson Lin
Out Monday!
3 Stars

CW: PTSD, therapy, breakdowns, flashbacks to a deadly gay bashing
✦ UN aid worker
✦ Journalist (Asian American)
✦ This is the dreaded “it was ok” kind of book. I didn’t hate, didn’t love, and have very little to say that’s at all helpful. :/
✦ I did feel like the romance was a bit lite. Example: we don't get any discussion of them being anything behind occasional fuck buddies until 95%. That's . . . a bit too MIA for me.
✦ Also: I had a hard time keeping track of the passage of time. 2 weeks would pass here, then a month there, then a few days here --- it was just . .. unclear? At least to me. I spent a lot of time going back to reread a section and try and figure out how much time had passed since a previous scene/situation.
✦ These time jumps also meant that I felt like a lot of things were skipped over
✦ I just realized I didn't even highlight a single quote in this book. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?! IDK, that's probably the best example of what I mean by "this book was ok". You know I'm a quote whore, and if I don't find something to highlight, well, thing are not going as well as they should be, you know?







Soft in the Middle by Shelby Eileen
4 Stars



I also read this really quick poetry book that I picked up on a whim -- it was free at the time but I'm pretty sure it's back up to full price. I really enjoyed it and found a lot of the pieces spoke to me. I didn't share the quotes while reading but I think I'll slowly share them over the coming weeks on Twitter, maybe Tumblr as well. Keep an eye out there, and if I start a thread for the quotes, I'll remember to link to it in a future Whatcha Reading post. Anyway, I really enjoyed it and it was just what I needed to read that particular night.





Kindle
Yep, it's back to $1.99, which is still a good deal





Currently Listening To:


The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi





Almost done! This is a YA fantasy based on mythology from India (set there as well, obviously). From what I can tell, it's going to be a cliffhanger ending until the next book, so keep that in mind. I'm really enjoying this world. Great if you're a fan of Hades and Persephone tales -- this is NOT such a tale of course, since this is from Indian, not Greek/Roman, mythology. But I can see fans of that theme loving this story as well. :)

Also: that cover though!





Currently Reading:


Ocean Light by Nalini Singh
Out Tuesday!





What do I need to say? It's Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling world. 'NUFF SAID. I love this series, and so far (no surprise!) I am loving this one as well.

She's a changeling (water creature) and scientist-turned-cook. He's human, the leader of the Human Alliance. Can she and her cousin find a way to save him from the ticking time bomb in his head?










So what are YOU currently reading? 



Enjoy!



Until Next Time,










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