I started a round-up post of books that I've read and enjoyed recently. It got so long that I decided to break it up into chunks. Mostly brief/quickie reviews, but they're exhausting all lumped together.
First up: a pair of paranormal, Regency-set m/m novellas.
I picked up The Magpie Lord, the first in the 'Charm of Magpies' series, after reading this review of the sequel by Kaetrin over at Kaetrin's Musings. The quotes she pulled from the books completely hooked me &, indeed, the writing is fantastic. Funny, smart, both fast-paced and atmospheric.
I'm not normally a novella person, but each of these novellas tells a satisfying, complete story. The characters are wonderful--a handsome, physically powerful Earl matched with a poor, mercurial but extremely powerful magician--and feel fresh while incorporating some of my favorite tropes.
Even though this is a Victorian set romance with an Earl as one of the lead characters, they never spend time trying to fit in with the in crowd, the 'ton' in romance parlance. They never worry about disapproval or ostracism. They worry about being convicted of a crime, they worry about legal repercussions, but they're not playing the popularity game, and it makes the books so much better.
Really great reads.