Angela: 2020 is almost over and it’s the time of year when I usually round up all the arcs I haven’t gotten to yet and try to get end of the year reviews in. But first! November has some great new releases to look forward to.
A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem by Manda Collins 11/10 Historical Mystery Romance-
An intrepid female reporter matches wits with a serious, sexy detective in award-winning author Manda Collins’ fun and flirty historical rom-com!
This sounds like a cross between historical mystery and romantic comedy and I am totally here for it.
The Bright and Breaking Sea by Chloe Neill 11/17 Fantasy Romance– A new fantasy by Chloe Neill! Yay! As soon as I saw that the heroine was a ship captain with a magical affinity for the sea and she has to team up with a Viscount who is also a war hero to venture into pirate territory to rescue a spy… I was all in. It sounds amazing.
The Boy Toy by Nicola Marsh 11/17 Contemporary Romance- This sounds super cute! A woman who has given up on love and the Australian stunt man who needs her help as a dialect coach in order to win a new gig as a reality host. An age-gap romance that sounds promising.
Archangel’s Sun (Guild Hunter #13) by Nalini Singh 11/24 PNR/Urban Fantasy Romance- I don’t know what else to say other than it’s Nalini Singh and it’s a Guild Hunter romance. Oh wait, and it’s Titus and the Hummingbird, and OMG I AM SO EXCITED.
The Princess Knight (The Scarred Earth Saga #2) by G.A. Aiken 11/24 Fantasy Romance- I really enjoyed the first book in this series and am looking forward to War Monk Gemma’s story.
Sheena: 2020 has been a fraud on every level imaginable. Plans to slay my TBR list once and for all were waylaid by Covid-19, atrocious politics, and an overall sense of epically proportioned: meh. Nevertheless, I have started regularly reading again and I have plans for November!
Notorious (Rebels of the Ton, #1) by Minerva Spencer 11/24 Historical Romance– ” The cure for a willful wife… is a smitten husband” I love this quote! It sold me. I can’t wait to read this. I think this might be my first Minerva Spencer. I desperately want to be enthralled!
She’s sharp-tongued, exasperating—and due to one careless moment—about to become his wife. Still, something about Drusilla has Gabriel intrigued. First there’s the delicious flush of her skin every time she delivers a barb—and then the surprisingly sensual feel of her in his arms. Gabriel even finds himself challenged by her unusual philosophies. And when he discovers a clandestine rival for Dru’s affection, his temperature flares even hotter…
Yes pelese!
Never Have You Ever (The Love Game, #1) by Elizabeth Hayley 11/10 Contemporary Romance Sexy stranger, forced proximity, and promises of angsty will-they-won’t-they. I read a Hayley novel, “I love You, I Hate You” back in 2018 so here’s to hoping lightning strikes twice.
Archangel’s Sun (Guild Hunter #13) by Nalini Singh 11/24 PNR/Urban Fantasy Romance- Listen, folks. I read this back in August and it was top freaking notch. I love the cadre and to think Nalini might give us more Cadre centered books is very exciting. Sun is fresh and the new arc the series is following is pleasantly complex! I simply must re-experience this book with the timeline because I seriously, SRSLY love Titus and his…VOICE. Swoon city, population: All of us!
Kini: As per usual, I think I read two books from my previous month’s TBR. October was a very busy month for me and I got caught up in living my life. Happens to the best of us, right? I’d been doing really good about only requesting ARCs that I feel really confident I can read, but in the madness that has been list last month, I’ve done some comfort requesting. Hopefully things will be better soon. Here are some of the November releases I am excited about.
Mimi Lee Reads Between the Lines by Jennifer J. Chow 11/10 Cozy Mystery -I am actually reading this now and it feels like a Hallmark movie in book form. Relatively low stakes, except with the whole murder thing, which I know will be resolved with not much harm to others. Plus the lead, Mimi can hear her cat talk to her via telepathy. I’ve told Kitty Scarlett we need to work on this, but she hasn’t been too keen on the idea so far.
Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur 11/10 Contemporary – Beautiful cover with a story about an astrologer and an actuary who agree to fake date. Yes, please!!!!
Pretending by Holly Bourne 11/17 Contemporary Fiction – The blurb on this mentions a woman who is dating but can’t get past date 5. So she pretends to be someone else. I’m a single person who is always thinking about dating and the problems with dating, so this really intrigued me.
I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom – 11/17 Non-Fiction – I watched season one of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, I really liked it but I am just a bad TV watcher. I really like how openly and honestly the show talked about mental health/illness. Bloom was the show’s creator and star so I am excited to see what she has to say. Plus the cover looks like the covers of books from when I was a kid.
The Princess Knight by G.A. Aiken 11/24 Sci-fi/Fantasy Romance – The first book in this series was the first book I read by Aiken and I really liked it. I love that she set the main female character as the hero of the story and I hope that continues here.
What does your TBR look like for November?
November 1 brought Caitlin Crews’s new HP, HIS SCANDALOUS CHRISTMAS PRINCESS. I was eagerly anticipating this one because I very much enjoyed the first book in the duet, CHRISTMAS IN THE KING’S BED, and the hero & heroine of that book are the brother & sister, respectively, of the hero & heroine in HIS SCANDALOUS CHRISTMAS PRINCESS. In addition, the heroine is blind and I’m not sure I’ve read an HP with a blind heroine before. I started reading it yesterday and Crews does some very interesting things with the narrative from the heroine’s POV. Obviously no visual descriptions, but lots of of descriptions of sensations of other senses: touch, sound, smell, taste. November 1 also broughtClare Connelly’s UNBREAK MY HART, the next in her Dare series about the Hart family. I don’t think these have been as successful as her Montebello series, but I’ve read all the other books in the Hart series, so I’ll finish this one.
Lauren Blakely’s m/m romance, ONE TIME ONLY, drops November 18. It features the relationship between a rock star and his bodyguard. A prequel, MAYBE THIS TIME, was released on October 28, and it was hot, hot, hot—especially as there’s no actual sex in it! Blakely has said the story in the prequel—about how the bodyguard was hired and the beginning of the attraction between the two men—is not part ONE TIME ONLY which apparently starts somewhat later.)
Sybil Bartel releases HEARTLESS, the ninth of her Alpha Bodyguards series, on November 23. Bartel is one of my favorite writers, but I did not care for her last Alpha Bodyguards outing, SHAMELESS. I’m hoping HEARTLESS rights the ship.
I’m also looking forward to Juliana Stone’s next Crystal Lake book, SHAKE THE FROST (November 25). The story features one of my favorite tropes: a man falls for his late best friend’s widow.
Thank you for saying that Mimi Lee Reads Between the Lines is “a Hallmark movie in book form”–so pleased!