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The Queen of the Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner and half of The King of Attolia before reading Return of the Thief. Pheris, a disregarded son of the house of Erondites, is the narrator. Pheris has also lived his life via deception and misdirection, mostly so is uniquely qualified to tell of the final showdown with the Medes and the now united countries of Sounis, Eddis, and Attolia. Twists and turns as usual in a MWT book. I really need to reread it. Well, finish rereading KoA, Conspiracy of Kings, and Thick of Thieves first. There were some details added that felt like ret-conning and that I wasn't happy about, but the book was still very good.
The Love Study by Kris Ripper. A funny, contemporary romance. Declan left his last partner at the altar (they're friends now) and has a group of good friends but is beginning to feel that there's something lacking in his life. He ends up agreeing to be set up with several dates with people who watch Sidney, a YouTuber who focuses on advice. I can't imagine it's much of a spoiler that he's smitten with Sidney although it takes a bit to realize it.
Division Bells by Iona Datt Sharma. Recced by several bloggers who I follow. Another contemporary, this one set in London in a group of civil servants trying to get legislature through Parliament. Ari is the head of the group and is saddled with a special advisor/subject matter expert due to aristocratic fiat named Julian/Jules. Ari is less than thrilled and tosses Julian into the deep end by assigning him to write supporting documentation. Julian actually does a good job and helps them with the legislature. A very interesting look at behind-the-scenes Parliamentary business and a cute love story too.
Finders, Keepers by N.R. Walker. Set in Australia, contemporary. Griffin finds a lost, muddy dog in a park and texts the owner, Dane. Dane's stuck at a work conference out-of-town so Griffin watches the dog and takes in on adventures. Very cute and set me on a multi-book streak with this author (in and among some other books).
Red Dirt Heart, 2, 3, 4, Imago, and Red Dirt Christmas by N.R. Walker. Set in Queensland on a large cattle station. Charlie Sutton has taken over Sutton Station after his estranged father died. He's got a good crew, and the cook + foreman couple are like his real ma and pa. He's been slowly upgrading the property and agrees to take on an agronomy student. The last one didn't work out too well--a paler than pale Englishman who got burnt to a crisp in the Australian summer. This one may do better. Travis was raised on a cattle ranch in Texas so is used to *some* heat. He has some great ideas to further improve the station. There's a bit of every problem imaginable in these books. Employer/employee, pregnancy (ha, not mpreg), stick-in-the-mud neighboring farmers, communication/lack of issues, poisonous critters, immigration, longlost and surprise family members, etc. A lot of fun, lot of interesting characters. Red Dirt Heart Imago sets up/crosses over with another series read later.
Guarding Temptation by Talia Hibbert. Set in England. Nina is a radical and ends up threatened after an article is published. She ends up staying with her brother's friend, James, who's actually had the hots for her for a while--but she's a commitment-phobe and she's his friend's sister and he's watched her grow up, and, and...you get the picture. Sexy times end up happening. I don't know, the steamy bits weren't quite what I liked or something so this is probably it for me by this author.
Masquerade in Lodi by Lois McMaster Bujold. Yay, another Penric and Desdemona story! This steps backwards in time to just after Penric realized he was not cut out to be a fulltime healer and started working on old manuscripts, translations, and other work instead. A demon is loose and Pen and Des need to find it. They get aid from a young woman, an orphan, who's also a saint. She's thrilled to be set free in the town (from her island-based orphanage) on the eve of a festival. I didn't find the mystery very compelling/difficult but it was fun still.
Imago and Imagines by N.R. Walker. Lawson comes to Tasmania to help another lepidopterist find a new species of butterfly. The professor saw it once, but has never seen another one. A local Parks/Wildlife office, Jack, ends up helping Lawson on his search.
Blind Faith, Through These Eyes, and Blindside by N.R. Walker. Carter, a new veterinarian in town, finds out that the retiring vet still has a handful of people that warrant house calls. One, Isaac, is neglecting his new guide dog out of grief for his previous one. Carter decides to continue the house calls and somehow get Isaac to realize he can love this dog too. It doesn't hurt that Isaac's amazing handsome too...These are set in Boston, and there are some words and phrasing that I don't think fit. "give it a go," "to hospital" and things like that. I mean maybe Boston has more English/Australianisms in the local dialect, but I don't think so. They weren't terrible, just every once in a while something would catch my eye.
The Ruin of Gabriel Ashleigh by K.J. Charles. This one's been staring at me for ages since I read the rest of the Society of Gentleman series. It's short about how Gabriel ends up a member.
