Earl Grey Books

Here’s an exciting little post today—I’ll be talking about the 2021 Read the Swoonies. If you’re interested in hearing more information about these, as well as the full list, check it out here!

I definitely won’t be reading all of them. There are a lot that just aren’t the sort of romances I enjoy and I won’t push myself to read things I know I won’t enjoy, but I’ll be doing my best to get through as many of them as I’m interested in as possible. I’ve picked out a few of those today to tell you about.

Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean

Isn’t it just amazing when different readings plans/challenges end up lining up? That’s exactly what happened with this one. In my post on Monday I talked about the next romance books I’d be reading, and this series happened to be one of the ones on the list. I’m just finishing off the second book in a duology and then I’ll be moving right onto this one. I’ve had a bit of a mixed bag with MacLean’s books in the past, but I’m extremely excited for this one having heard such great things about this series lately. I hope this will end up being one of hers that I love. I’m also just really in the mood for this kind of series right now. I’m hoping it’s going to be kind of fun, maybe a little emotional at times and of course, very sexy. I think I’m ready for whatever Sarah MacLean is going to throw at me with this series. Expect to see a review of this series in some form within the next few weeks!

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

This is definitely outside the usual sort of thing I read. I’m just not much of a contemporary romance reader, but I love a good fake dating story and some LGBTQ+ rep. I honestly know very little about this book aside from those things but it does have really great reviews from people I trust so I’m hoping it’ll be a good read. Also, I love books set in London because it’s one of my favourite cities in the world—you know the drill. Now, I do want to mention that the Swoonies highlighted this one as an audiobook but I’ve decided to purchase it and read it as a physical copy. I’ve talked at length before about how bad I am at actually finishing audiobooks—I’m still working on getting better at that, but I didn’t want to purchase the audio knowing I wouldn’t get to it when I could just buy the physical copy and now that I’ll at least read it in that form. Maybe it kind of defeats the purpose of me including it on this TBR, but that’s how I’m going about it anyway.

From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I am both incredibly excited and extremely nervous about this one. I was never really one of those big fans of Jennifer L. Armentrout back in her heyday—her books were always just really hard to find here so I could usually only ever get the first one in a series. Anyway, I did enjoy the things from here I did read but the last thing I read was in 2015, so it’s definitely been a while. I would really love to go back and finish some of those series I did start, so maybe this one will be a nice way to do that. I haven’t heard a bad word about this one from anyone, but this is definitely one of those book community darlings right now so who knows what people will think of this in a few months time or if it’ll just drop off the face of the Earth. I did actually buy this one months ago, so if nothing else at least I’ll be getting it off the list of books waiting for me unread on my Kindle.

The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

This is probably the one on the list I’m most nervous for. I tried to read The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune last month and ended up DNFing it. There was nothing wrong with it—I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be reading it at the time. But despite that, I am still nervous for this one. On top of that, this has an extreme amount of hype surrounding it. I saw so many people pick this as their favourite book of 2020, and Angel absolutely adores it—she actually picked it for me as part of our best friend picks my TBR challenge this year. That all being said, I know if I don’t pick this one up soon then I’ll just keep avoiding it and then I’ll feel bad for not reading the ones Angel picked out. It’s a vicious cycle, honestly. But here’s hoping that this ends us being one that I really enjoy, even if I don’t end up loving it as much as everyone else.

Duke I’d Like To F… by Sierra Simone et al

Okay, here’s another one I’m kind of terrified for. The only one I’ve read from the authors included in here is Eva Leigh and I did not like her books at all. But I was totally sucked into this by the title, and it also seems like a good way to try some other romance authors that I haven’t read before without spending any money. This one is available on Kindle Unlimited at the moment which is the main reason I’m picking this up—it’s very little risk involved if I don’t like it compared to spending money on an eBook or physical copy. I can just return it if I don’t enjoy it and there’s no harm done. I will definitely be trying all of the stories, though I won’t be pushing myself to finish any that I don’t like. Here’s hoping there’s at least one story or author that I end up enjoying!

You Should See Me In A Crown by Leah Johnson

I was so happy to see this one on this list because I’ve been avoiding it for months. I preordered it last year and then just wasn’t in the mood for it and I still haven’t picked it up. It was on a few TBRs and everything but it just kept getting pushed back for other things. I think at this point I just need that push to start this and then I’ll be totally fine and will probably end up really enjoying it. I’ve heard literally nothing but good things about this one, especially from Inge whose opinion I trust more than almost anyone. I think I’m in a little more of YA contemporary mood right now too as I’ve been reading some Alice Oseman and other books like that lately. If you’ve read this, feel free to leave me some encouraging comments down below, or just scream at me to read this—either one works really.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Another one that I’ll be able to take off my Kindle TBR. For the longest time, I really wasn’t sure whether I’d actually read this one or not. It sounded good, but then I wasn’t sure if it was my sort of book anymore. I’m still not really sure, but like I said I do own it on Kindle so I’m going to at least give it a chance. I haven’t really heard anyone talk about this since it came out—a lot of my friends ordered copies about the same time I did and everyone was really, really excited for it but I don’t think a single one of them has actually read it. With that being said, if anyone’s interested in a buddy read of this (or any of the others), please let me know because it’s always fun to read and discuss books with other people. Admittedly, right now this will be kind of lower down the list than some of these others just based on my mood but I might feel like picking this up in a few weeks, who knows?

Spoiler Alert by Olive Dade

And the final one takes another thing off my Kindle TBR! I bought Spoiler Alert a little more recently—I believe it was on sale or I had a coupon code or something. Anyway, I bought it because I was super excited for it but also because it looked really cute and I always like to have books like that ready for those days when I need something light and cute. This one is about fanfiction which I love. I used to write fan fiction myself when I was a teenager, but now I’m just a reader so this sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun. This might be the one on the list I’m most excited to read at moment, so hopefully it’ll end up being a really enjoyable read. I am a little bit tempted to start this one in a few days time, so who knows, you might end up seeing a review of this one shortly!

So those are the ones I’ll be trying to read for the next few months! I’ll hopefully remember to do a check in post in a few month’s time, but I’ll be definitely be sharing my thoughts on all of the books I get around to between now and September.