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impishtubistThis journal's been quiet lately because I haven't much to post as far as writing goes. I have a handful of ficlets in my drafts folder that someday I might get around to posting when I feel inspired again, but apart from that, I've mostly been focusing on several different original stories, hence my silence.
But I have had the good fortune of coming across several different book series this past year that have sucked me in, and now that I'm all caught up on all of these series, I think it's high time to rec them vigorously (and hope that the authors release a new book soon, because now I'm itching for more):
-The Donald Strachey mysteries:
Don Strachey isn't my favorite gay detective (that honor goes to Michael Nava's Henry Rios), but he's by far the most sarcastic and hilarious, so right there he's won a special place in my heart. Book!Strachey is a bit different from movie!Strachey, and a lot more human - he's romantically monogamous but not sexually, kind of a dick, very much in love with his partner, and a pretty decent PI who still gets his ass kicked occasionally. There are thirteen books in this series at present, following Strachey from the late '70s all the way up to the present day (and it's interesting to see how he grows as a character and how technology changes the way he conducts his profession). Chad Allen plays movie!Strachey, which right there makes the movies as worth it to watch as the books are to read.
-The Captive Prince trilogy:
THESE BOOKS ARE SO GOOD THEY DESERVE ALL THE CAPSLOCK. And there are only two books of the three published right now, so right there you can understand my frustration. Thank goodness for the instant-gratification of Kindle books, for I got to the end of the first book and immediately had to have the second one in my hands. And then I finished the second one and immediately went and read all the fics on AO3 just to tide me over for a while. Anyway, this series right here is the definition of slow-burn. Damen is a prince who is stripped of his identity and sent to be a slave in an enemy nation. He serves the cruel Prince Laurent, and they both get sucked into the vicious politics of the court - and end up having to work together. There's a ton of political intrigue that will make your head spin (in a good way!) and so many heated moments between the two princes.
i can't tell you the number of times i was screaming JUST KISS ALREADY at my kindle
-The Timothy Wilde books:
These are books that I bought on Kindle because I wasn't sure what I was going to think of them, and then I liked them so much that I had to go out and buy paper copies of them as well. They take place in New York City in 1845, not long after the formation of the first police force, and they follow Timothy Wilde as he takes a job with the brand-new NYPD and immediately gets drawn into a gruesome mystery.
As with everything I read or watch, the minor characters are who I fall in love with. Timothy's awesome and all, but (for me) the series is truly worth it for his snarky (and tormented) brother Val. I'd read an entire spin-off series about him doing menial stuff like paperwork and combing his hair, tbh.
-The Cut & Run series:
These are the books that got me through much waiting in airports this past spring, as well as some very bumpy plane rides (and it takes a lot distract me from those). Make sure you've got a good chunk of time available when you start these, because you aren't going to be able to put them down. The series follows two FBI agents who are reluctantly teamed up together in the first book (well, more than reluctantly - they hate each other) and who quickly fall for each other. While also battling serial killers, cougars, demons from their respective pasts... pretty much anything you can name, the author puts these two through. There's a shit-ton of whump, which just makes me so happy. The only drawback to this series is the treatment of the female characters (they're either crazy exes, dead wives who could never measure up to the current male lover, or bad guys), but I still managed to devour all these books in a relatively short amount of time. And the eighth book has ended on a cliffhanger, so now I need more pronto.
(Speaking of minor characters I fall in love with, in this series it's Nick. I even got my wish for a spinoff series about him!)
-The Administration series:
There's no other way to put it: these books are seriously fucked up and I don't know what it says about me that I enjoy them so much. There is very little that is redeemable about the main character, Val Toreth, though the flickers of growth that you see in him throughout the five years that the series covers almost makes it bearable to sit through all the awful things that he does (he's an interrogator in a dystopian future London). What does make it worth it is his kinder, gentler lover Keir Warrick, and the way their relationship changes from a casual one in the first book to something that Toreth can't bear to live without by the seventh.
It's still seriously fucked up, though. There's no getting around that. But oh so enjoyable as well.
-The Adrien English mysteries:
If you can ignore the cheesy covers (easy to do with a Kindle!), then anything by Josh Lanyon is pretty much gold (except for the clusterfuck that is Out of the Blue). His Adrien English books are by far my favorite of the series that he writes, though his stand-alone novels also tend to be excellent (I'd give my left kidney for a series to be made out of Come Unto These Yellow Sands).
These mysteries take advantage of the ordinary-citizen-keeps-stumbling-across-murders trope. Whereas Timothy Wilde, Donald Strachey, and the Cut & Run boys are all investigators of a sort, Adrien's a bookseller who just happens to come across a new murder in every book. And he has a troubled, on-again off-again relationship with a closeted cop named Jake Riordan, so the books are humorous and yet have just the right touch of angst. (In fact, one of my favorite things about Josh Lanyon is that he usually writes books where one half of the pair is a cop or uniform of some kind. Definitely a weakness of mine). I absolutely adore Jake, even though he spends the first couple of books kind of being a grumpy ass. He comes around, though :)
And now that I'm all caught up on the book series I was following, I definitely had a panicky moment of what do I read now last night. So I picked up The God Eaters (available free online!) and The Boy I Love. I'm hoping they will be as emotionally devastating as they seem :)
But I have had the good fortune of coming across several different book series this past year that have sucked me in, and now that I'm all caught up on all of these series, I think it's high time to rec them vigorously (and hope that the authors release a new book soon, because now I'm itching for more):
-The Donald Strachey mysteries:
Don Strachey isn't my favorite gay detective (that honor goes to Michael Nava's Henry Rios), but he's by far the most sarcastic and hilarious, so right there he's won a special place in my heart. Book!Strachey is a bit different from movie!Strachey, and a lot more human - he's romantically monogamous but not sexually, kind of a dick, very much in love with his partner, and a pretty decent PI who still gets his ass kicked occasionally. There are thirteen books in this series at present, following Strachey from the late '70s all the way up to the present day (and it's interesting to see how he grows as a character and how technology changes the way he conducts his profession). Chad Allen plays movie!Strachey, which right there makes the movies as worth it to watch as the books are to read.
-The Captive Prince trilogy:
THESE BOOKS ARE SO GOOD THEY DESERVE ALL THE CAPSLOCK. And there are only two books of the three published right now, so right there you can understand my frustration. Thank goodness for the instant-gratification of Kindle books, for I got to the end of the first book and immediately had to have the second one in my hands. And then I finished the second one and immediately went and read all the fics on AO3 just to tide me over for a while. Anyway, this series right here is the definition of slow-burn. Damen is a prince who is stripped of his identity and sent to be a slave in an enemy nation. He serves the cruel Prince Laurent, and they both get sucked into the vicious politics of the court - and end up having to work together. There's a ton of political intrigue that will make your head spin (in a good way!) and so many heated moments between the two princes.
-The Timothy Wilde books:
These are books that I bought on Kindle because I wasn't sure what I was going to think of them, and then I liked them so much that I had to go out and buy paper copies of them as well. They take place in New York City in 1845, not long after the formation of the first police force, and they follow Timothy Wilde as he takes a job with the brand-new NYPD and immediately gets drawn into a gruesome mystery.
As with everything I read or watch, the minor characters are who I fall in love with. Timothy's awesome and all, but (for me) the series is truly worth it for his snarky (and tormented) brother Val. I'd read an entire spin-off series about him doing menial stuff like paperwork and combing his hair, tbh.
-The Cut & Run series:
These are the books that got me through much waiting in airports this past spring, as well as some very bumpy plane rides (and it takes a lot distract me from those). Make sure you've got a good chunk of time available when you start these, because you aren't going to be able to put them down. The series follows two FBI agents who are reluctantly teamed up together in the first book (well, more than reluctantly - they hate each other) and who quickly fall for each other. While also battling serial killers, cougars, demons from their respective pasts... pretty much anything you can name, the author puts these two through. There's a shit-ton of whump, which just makes me so happy. The only drawback to this series is the treatment of the female characters (they're either crazy exes, dead wives who could never measure up to the current male lover, or bad guys), but I still managed to devour all these books in a relatively short amount of time. And the eighth book has ended on a cliffhanger, so now I need more pronto.
(Speaking of minor characters I fall in love with, in this series it's Nick. I even got my wish for a spinoff series about him!)
-The Administration series:
There's no other way to put it: these books are seriously fucked up and I don't know what it says about me that I enjoy them so much. There is very little that is redeemable about the main character, Val Toreth, though the flickers of growth that you see in him throughout the five years that the series covers almost makes it bearable to sit through all the awful things that he does (he's an interrogator in a dystopian future London). What does make it worth it is his kinder, gentler lover Keir Warrick, and the way their relationship changes from a casual one in the first book to something that Toreth can't bear to live without by the seventh.
It's still seriously fucked up, though. There's no getting around that. But oh so enjoyable as well.
-The Adrien English mysteries:
If you can ignore the cheesy covers (easy to do with a Kindle!), then anything by Josh Lanyon is pretty much gold (except for the clusterfuck that is Out of the Blue). His Adrien English books are by far my favorite of the series that he writes, though his stand-alone novels also tend to be excellent (I'd give my left kidney for a series to be made out of Come Unto These Yellow Sands).
These mysteries take advantage of the ordinary-citizen-keeps-stumbling-across-murders trope. Whereas Timothy Wilde, Donald Strachey, and the Cut & Run boys are all investigators of a sort, Adrien's a bookseller who just happens to come across a new murder in every book. And he has a troubled, on-again off-again relationship with a closeted cop named Jake Riordan, so the books are humorous and yet have just the right touch of angst. (In fact, one of my favorite things about Josh Lanyon is that he usually writes books where one half of the pair is a cop or uniform of some kind. Definitely a weakness of mine). I absolutely adore Jake, even though he spends the first couple of books kind of being a grumpy ass. He comes around, though :)
And now that I'm all caught up on the book series I was following, I definitely had a panicky moment of what do I read now last night. So I picked up The God Eaters (available free online!) and The Boy I Love. I'm hoping they will be as emotionally devastating as they seem :)
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Date: 2014-08-05 12:14 pm (UTC)I hope you enjoy the Strachey mysteries! They're an enjoyable read.