I come to you with a simple, terrifying fact: 2024 is almost here. I don’t know how that happened either, but in deference to the calendar, I decided to do a wrap-up of Things I Liked In 2023. These are all entertainment-related, because I’m a writer and that’s what I do here, but if you’re curious I also like Trader Joe’s chocolate bars with the whole hazelnuts, weighted blankets, rollerball pens, and noise-canceling headphones. I did not like vet appointments or the Adderall shortage.
This was the first year ever that I actually kept track of what I read! I know tons of people with Goodreads accounts or very complicated spreadsheets, and I respect that, but couldn’t be me. If I make writing down a book I read too much work, then instead of making it simpler, I’ll just not read the book. It doesn’t really make sense, but I am the way that I am, so a list in my notes app it was.
According to that list I read 105 books (and DNFed about twice that many, oops), which is a book every three and a half days or so. I didn’t even count My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish though, technically, I did read that one. Several times. It’s a favorite with a certain demographic in my household. (The demographic is: five-year-olds who are trying to delay bedtime.)
(These aren’t necessarily books that came out this year, just books I read.)
(Also: did you read something amazing in 2023? Please tell me! I always need to read more amazing books.)
The Pentecost & Parker Series by Stephen Spotswood
I don’t have the best impulse control, and nowhere is that quite so apparent as when I’m inhaling a mystery series. I’ll DNF a lackluster book in any other genre, but for some reason, I finish virtually every mystery I start. Even if it’s not good, I still need to know whether I’m right about who the murderer is (I am).
Great news, though: Pentecost and Parker is very good! It’s set right after World War II ends, about a woman private detective (Pentecost) and her plucky sidekick (Parker). The mystery in each of them is fun as hell, and both the leads are fully-realized female characters who have, you know, interesting wants and desires and flaws and a whole interior life and everything! Also, I’m pretty sure that the second book takes place EXACTLY where I grew up (they have to drive forty minutes west of Fredericksburg, VA to get to the place where the murder happened).
The Doomsday Books by K.J. Charles
You already know I’m an embarrassingly enthusiastic KJ Charles fangirl, right? Right. These two M/M historicals—The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen and A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing A Scoundrel—both came out this year, and they’re all kinds of wonderful. Technically, these are regency romances, but they’re set in Romney Marsh, a smuggling hotspot that Wikipedia calls “a sparsely populated wetland.” It’s about as culturally far from the ton as you can get while still being in 1810s England. There are insect enthusiasts and lost gold and dashing feats of bravery. All the characters are great, but Luke Doomsday is my very own sneaky backhanded scheming angel and I love him. (I have a favorite character type, and that type is “sneaky, scheming bastard as written by KJ Charles.”)
We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian
This one’s probably the warmest, fuzziest book I read this year, and DAMN was it warm and fuzzy; about two friends in the 1950s who gradually realize they want to be more amidst sweaters and newspapers and baseball and soup. (Yes, it was another M/M historical; I’m pretty sure I’ve read all the ones that exist at this point. Zero regrets.) Completely lovely, but also a bittersweet meditation on what it meant to build a life as a queer person in the 1950s.
Game Misconduct and Delay of Game by Ari Baran
Last year I somehow fell into a giant pit of queer hockey romance, and sorry, I will not be coming out any time soon. Down here with me in this pit are these two M/M romances, one of which (Game Misconduct) is fairly gritty, a bit dark, and really delivers on the ‘enemies to lovers’ premise; the other (Delay of Game) is a sweet idiots-to-lovers about two best friends and hockey teammates who keep hooking up but are both so sure the other person isn’t emotionally invested. Spoiler alert: they are! (I’m a sucker for this storyline and will read it every single time like it’s the first and I’ve never been here before.)
Plus, I think Game Misconduct might have the funniest line in a book that I read this year. (It’s, “He wondered if was possible to be so turned on that you like. Astral projected or something.”)
Lucky Bounce by Cait Nary
I’m basically an evangelist for Cait Nary’s Season’s Change (IT’S SO GOOD, please go read it), and I might… like Lucky Bounce even more? When people say a book has a “strong narrative voice” this is what they’re talking about. If I could somehow put the voice in this book directly into my veins, I would. At one point she uses three sets of parentheses in a row (like this)(and then this)(and last, this) and I was so delighted by it that I literally giggled and kicked my feet. If this is a weird way to recommend a romance book, I’m not sorry.
(This is about a single dad hockey player who falls for his daughter’s elementary school gym teacher, and it is cute as fuck. Also the sexual tension is [chef’s kiss]. There, some selling points that aren’t about parentheses! I’m a writer, I get excited about weird shit sometimes.)
PS - I read an ARC of this and it actually comes out in January 2024, but you should preorder it because it’s both a hoot and a holler.
His Secret Illuminations by Scarlett Gale
Speaking of strong narrative voices: this book! I didn’t know that I desperately wanted a romance about a sheltered, innocent monk and the six-foot-five super-buff warrior woman he falls for super, super hard, but wow, I sure did. This one’s medieval-ish and has magic and monsters and spooky stuff and big swords and all that good good romantasy stuff we all want. It’s SUCH a good time.
Peter Darling by Austin Chant
One of those classic story retellings that’s pretty much replaced the original as canon in my head. In this, a transmasc Peter comes back to Neverland years after he last left, where he grapples figuratively with the nature of imagination and reality and literally (and sexily) with Captain Hook. I read this months ago and still think about it at least every other day. (Does that make it my Roman Empire? It’s gotta be close.)
Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
To be honest, I’m not really sure what makes something a high fantasy vs. a low fantasy. I think high fantasy is about fighting dragons and saving the world, and low fantasy is about regular people doing mostly regular stuff, but in a world where sometimes there’s a dragon off in the distance? Basically, high fantasy is The Lord of the Rings and low fantasy is Discworld. (For the record, of those two things I vastly prefer Discworld. Please don’t come for me. If you’ve never read a Discworld book, start with Night Watch, and you’re welcome.)
(…I should re-read Night Watch.)
Wandering back to my point, Swordheart is an M/F low fantasy romance about a woman who falls in love with a magical sword while fighting her relatives for the inheritance that is legally and rightfully hers. Halla is one of my all-time fave female characters: she’s complicated and flawed and funny and deeply, deeply normal, the absolute antithesis of A Strong Female Lead. She does not kick ass in a traditional sense, she doesn’t have powers, but she’s brave, clever, observant, and willing to use femininity as a weapon in a way I’ve never really read before. (More than anything, she uses the societal construct of femininity as a weapon, but this is a newsletter, not a college paper. In this essay I will…)
Her magical-sword-lover is very grumpy and conflicted and confused by the fact that she’s actually a good person. They’re both mid-thirties and older. There is back pain. There is a Fantasy Lawyer whose cult I would join in a second. To conclude this essay, Swordheart is a delight and you should read it. (You should also read it soon, because I think it got picked up by a trad publisher and might not be available for a while? So, get on that.)
The Big Bad Wolf Series by Charlie Adhara
Every so often I find a book series and then emerge, five days later, to realize that I’ve consumed the whole thing barely eating, sleeping, or blinking. (In 2022 I did this with Jordan L. Hawk’s Whyborne & Griffin series.) Allow me to emerge, Gollum-like, and recommend this M/M romance series about a human and his werewolf boyfriend. The whole thing follows the same couple, which I love when it’s well-done, because seeing people get together is fun but seeing a relationship deepen and mature is also fun. Plus, I thought that this one had a really interesting relationship dynamic by the end; I don’t want to spoil it but please know that I’m a huge sucker for the smaller, weaker part of a couple turning out to be super badass and powerful.
Loki (the TV show)
I’m ready to make a bold proclamation: the Loki TV show is the best thing in the Marvel universe. I’m admittedly a casual MCU enjoyer at best, but Loki is weird, wonderful, compelling, and small-scale in a way that most of those movies aren’t. Owen Wilson and Tom Hiddleston are incredibly good together and I would watch them talk about timelines while pouring soda on salads all day long. (I wasn’t particularly attracted to Hiddleston before this show, but it turns out he’s very good at standing in a hot way? I get it now.) There’s a romance arc that I actually liked and a heroine who’s the driving force of the show, not just an onlooker.
(Slight spoilers ahead)
If you need convincing that the romance arc is pretty good, here’s the best part (this show features a lot of variations of Loki, just go with it).
Other Loki: There’s a female Loki? That sounds terrifying!
Hiddleston Loki (with a goofy grin and enormous, shining heart eyes): Oh, it is!
(I have some major quibbles with the second season and especially the way it ended, but that’s neither here nor there.)
Good Omens (the TV show)
Speaking of otherworldly beings with great chemistry, you should watch Good Omens! The first season is very madcap and the second season is a bit quieter, but it’s about an angel (Aziraphale) and a demon (Crowley) who work together to avert Armageddon because if the earth got destroyed, they’d both have to go home and wouldn’t be able to hang out any more. (The first season has some real “and they were roommates!” energy, even though they’re not actually roommates. The second season is pretty much just a romance between two non-humans who, to quote the show, have a pash for one another and don’t know how to conduct a courtship. Also, you see Jon Hamm’s butt.)
The end of the second season is kind of a bummer, but it just got picked up for a third season, so hope springs eternal.
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