Books I've Read & Books I've Bought

I once watched a documentary where I learned that time is affected by gravity; what is one minute in one world can be one year in another. I think this can be true when things feel heavy, time passes differently, too. Time is largely arbitrary, a human, social construct to make sense of things.

Which is all to say, it’s been a while since I posted last.

So I put together a list of books I’ve read recently (that is, at any point in 2024) and books I’ve bought but haven’t read yet. It won’t be a comprehensive list, but I’ll hit the highlights!

Books I’ve Read

(This is where I consult my StoryGraph for what I’ve actually read this year because I no longer keep that information in my brain.)

If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens

I read this book for Halloween, and it’s absolutely a great spooky season book featuring a haunted castle in Scotland. There are actual ghosts! But it also would make a good book for Indigenous History Month with its Indigenous rep (Americas). The book tackles how the publishing industry treats nonwhite authors and stories (spoiler: it’s not that great and yes, accurate).

Also enemies to lovers! One of my favorite tropes.

The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love by India Holton

If you’ve ever been like, “The only one bed trope is cool and all, but what I’d really like to read is too many beds,” then good news, this is your book. It’s a historical fantasy with neurodivergent-coded characters (yes, I see you Beth with your adherence to rules to make sense of your world) who are birders. Except the birds are fantastical beasts who can injure or kill you—but don’t worry, this ends up being a surprisingly lighthearted romance. Rivals to lovers, road trip, forced proximity, and birds. Do more romance novels need birders? Yes.

Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews

I’d been in a bit of a reading slump until I read the first book in the series, Burn for Me. The next day, I took myself to Tropes & Trifles to buy the next two books in the series. I read those, and then reread them while I was waiting for the final three books in the series to arrive.

Ilona Andrews is a husband and wife team who write urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Do we even call it urban fantasy anymore? Urban fantasy is typically a fantasy world set in an urban area (Houston, Texas, here) that follows one character over multiple books. There’s often a love interest. That’s what this series is. There is magic and powerful families and deep corruption and very good at breaking reading slumps. You should absolutely check out a more detailed description of the series on Ilona Andrews’s website because I am not doing it justice.

Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore

Ezra sees ghosts, and—perhaps unsurprisingly?—doesn’t like spending time at his family’s funeral home. Except things happen and he finds himself back home, working in the funeral home and trying to hold everything together. While dealing with a crush on funeral home volunteer . . . whose dead husband Ezra can see.

Told only through Ezra’s POV, it’s more than just romance—this is Ezra’s story and reckoning with his gift and his family. Includes queer rep. Ezra is trans! That is just the beginning of the queer rep. Also Jewish rep.

There is an adorable dog. Whose picture is in the book.

Ghost Mountain Wolf Shifters series by Audrey Faye

Less romance, more stories of love, this is a sprawling series features a broken pack who, under a new leader, find their strengths and find ways to heal their trauma. Each book centers around one specific pack member, but you get POVs from multiple characters, which makes this series immersive. There’s something beautiful in the way that the dominant-submissive dynamic is handled in this series, along with exploring what it means to heal after abuse and trauma.

Definitely start with Alpha, the first book in the series, and read in order. I spent the entire month of June reading through nine of the now-11 books of the series.

At First Spite by Olivia Dade

I’m a big, big fan of Olivia Dade. She’s fantastic at writing books that are fun and funny while still covering serious topics and being incredibly emotional. And that’s exactly what this was. A messy FMC (female main character) who uses the spite house for its intended purpose. Enemies to lovers! There are SO MANY PRANKS. A monster erotica audiobook played loudly. A small town that feels like a place you’d like to visit. A real, honest look at what depressive episodes can look like and the way that the character is cared for during that time is just . . . wonderful.

I reread my notes on this book and now have a desire to reread it, which makes my to-be-read pile very unhappy.

Books I’ve Bought & Look Forward to Reading

Buying books and reading books are two separate hobbies! Often, my buying goes up when my reading goes down. I am very much a mood reader, too, which means I get very excited about books, buy them, and months go by before I pick them up. Such is life.

Lightning in Her Hands by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

The first book in this series, Witch of the Wild Things, was one of my favorites in 2023. I called it a lush, lyrical, and lingering paranormal romance. So it’s not really surprising that I snapped up the second when it published. I’ve been told it’s just as good as the first. I will pick it up soon, probably.

The Undermining of Twyla and Frank by Megan Bannen

The first book in this series, The Undertaking of Hart & Mercy, sets up a world that is unlike others. It has zombies and gods and magic and a very fun postal system. It was rec’d hard from Lauren at Tropes & Trifles, and I, in turn, have recommended it to others. I would have included the first book in the previous section, but I was practicing restraint (this is a lie, I got overwhelmed by how many I already had), and figured I’d include it here. I bought the second book, which features characters we met in the first. This one has friends to lovers and older main characters. And a baby dragon.

One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole

I came to read Alyssa Cole through her romance titles (both her Reluctant Royals series and her historical romance—specifically An Extraordinary Union). In 2020, she published a thriller, When No One Is Watching, and it was so good that I knew I needed to get this book, her next thriller. I’ve heard very good things about this book.

What have you read recently? What’s on your immediate to-be-read list?