Book 80: Mr. Right Now by Annabeth Albert

 The third of my gay Christmas romance novels! Another fake boyfriends one, although this one is much less bonkers than "my boss needs to believe I'm happily engaged or I won't get promoted." This one is much more classic, in terms of "my relationship ended suddenly and rather than tell my family I'm single again, what if I just pretend that the hot gay neighbor I've been checking out since I moved in is my boyfriend, instead?" (It does get a BIT into "I will deceive my boss in order to get a raise through my family situation," but it's not nearly as front and center.)

Both Russ and Estaban are charming and likeable, although Estaban's cultural background feels painted on at times, and the book does the whole "Spanish in italics" thing. But the book falls apart a bit when the "conflict" between the two of them is over Russ not wanting to rebound and so forth, and while it's closer to a novella than a novel already, I found it a bit tedious by the end. 

Grade: C 

Book 79: Better Not Pout by Annabeth Albert

 The second of our gay Christmas romance novels, this one also takes place in upstate New York with a grumpy older guy and a younger energetic guy who has resigned himself to not finding love by staying in his home town. But this time the older guy is a military cop about to retire, and guys, it is really hard to read romance novels about cops these days!!! This author writes a lot of military romances, which I generally have an easier time with than cops, even military cops, but boy. 

In this story the conflict is that Nick, the cop, is going to move away after he retires, so his romance with Teddy, the social worker who plays Santa's elf for charity every year in the small town he grew up in, has a built-in expiration date. Which is fine, except we all know that Nick doesn't actually want to move away, etc. etc., and even for a Christmas romance novel the conflict feels pretty strained. Still, I did actually like both Teddy and Nick, the cop issue notwithstanding, even if I've generally enjoyed other books by this author more. 

Grade: C

Book 78: The Christmas Deal by Keira Andrews

 Here is the first of the (mostly gay) Christmas romance novels I am reading this December!!

This is a classic setup - we have one sad desperate lonely grumpy not-out queer dude who is in need of a place where he and his stepson can live, since he's out of work after he was injured on the job, and another out-but-single gay dude who got abandoned by his former boyfriend and is estranged by his entire family but has a giant beautiful home, and a boss who inexplicably will only promote people who have stable family lives (since employment laws don't exist in this version of upstate New York). Grumpy guy, whose name is Logan, meets abandoned guy, whose name is Seth, through his sister, who is Seth's coworker. 

The whole story progresses about as you expect a Christmas romance novel to, and I largely enjoyed it, except it was a bit heavier on the angst than I really wanted. Just an endless stream of homophobic family stuff and personal loss and a difficult stepson and by the end I wanted a much less heavy story than it was. But it certainly delivers on the trope, so if "fake boyfriends" is a surefire winner for you, I recommend this. 

Grade: C

Book 77: A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner

 Book for in the Queen's Thief series! In many ways the most straightforward book so far; it overlaps with The King of Attolia a bit and in general would be completely unclear if you hadn't read the first three books in the series, but Sophos is also a comparatively straightforward point of view character and also personality in these books. Even when he is posing as a slave in order to survive to protect himself and the throne, he is extremely clear-cut as a character. The sleight of hand that exists in the narrative is much more upfront as well; he knows things that his internal monologue doesn't reveal to the reader, but that feels considerably less shocking, narratively, than the reveals in the first three books. 

None of the above is a complaint, however! I still really enjoyed this particular installment, even if it's not my favorite of the series so far. It was nice in many ways to read something this direct in its storytelling, and I'm still loving this entire world. 

Grade: A

Book 76: The King of Attolia by Megan Whelan Turner

 Boy!!! The third book in the Queen's Thief series, this one has the most DELIGHTFUL point of view character, Costis. He is a guard for the palace in Attolia, and his unreliable narrator is great in a totally different way to the first two books: because we know more about Gen and his relationship with Irene than he does, and so the dramatic irony of his interpretation of what's going on versus our suspicions makes the entire story fascinating. This is especially true because Costis is just so darn likeable, which means that even when he's completely wrong you still sympathize with him, and understand why he feels the way he does about what's happening. 

The plot of this story centers on how Gen can be accepted as the King of Attolia, without destroying the Queen's authority and allowing the barons to ferment dissent against her reign. And of course he goes about it in the most Thief-esque way possible, and makes sure that no one actually sees him for all that he is until it's too late (for them). It is an excellent third book of what I think of as being the first trilogy of two in this series. 

Grade: A

Book 75: A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson

 I bought this book basically knowing one and a half things about it: that it's gay and set in a vaguely historical setting. And both of those are true! The setting feels roughly like a Mediterranean/North African culture, and the main character is Aqib, the youngest son of a man who manages a menagerie for the court, and who lost a lot of status when he married Aqib's mother. For complicated reasons, the whole family depends on Aqib, who is beautiful and effeminate, to marry a high born woman and allow the entire family to rise in society again. But this becomes very complicated for Aqib when he meets Lucrio, a captain who is stationed in their city, and who Aqib falls deeply in love with the first night they meet. 

The structure of this book is really interesting, as is the way that language is used to distinguish the characters and their worlds, and the overall narrative thrust. I began to get quite worried about how the story would end, because you want Aqib and Lucrio to choose each other so much, but there is a lot that leads you to believe one or both of them may not. I really liked where it took us, although I could have done with even more focus on the love story, in some ways. A really lovely read, and an interesting follow up to Haunting in a lot of ways. 

Grade: B 

Book 74: The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark

This novella was a free download from Tor this fall, which tend to be extremely hit or miss for me--sometimes I discover a new author I really love, and other times it's more of an exercise for my speculative fiction reading brain. This definitely falls into the first category for me! 

It's set in Cairo at the turn of the 20th century, but it's a Cairo that exists in a world where magic was released about forty years prior, and obviously everything changed. We follow two spiritual investigators, basically, who are a crime solving team mired in bureaucracy. The writing is delightful and the set up is extremely interesting, and all of this is done to the backdrop of women fighting for their right to vote, and revolution occurring all around. The team of Hamed and Onsi are a classic pair of the older, more established investigator being paired with the young, enthusiastic, fresh out of university recruit, and the way they navigate the mystery and the city and everything in between is extremely enjoyable. A very fun read. 

Grade: B