JUNE 2017 Favorites

As many of you know, summer means catching up on reading and I've been doing a ton of that. I'm averaging almost a book a day + listening to an audio books + reading books for teaching next semester. I keep telling myself that I need to probably do other things but I can't seem to stop or find some balance but I haven't done that yet. Maybe July will be the month I get my reading addiction under control? Or maybe not.

I've been thinking a lot about some of the trends in Romancelandia --things like some established authors testing the writing waters in sub-genres or other genres all together, or writers creating classes, workshops, retreats, and online spaces dedicated to writing in this indie world. It'll be interesting to see how all of these things pan out--hopefully with all the success, right? More good writers writing more good things is a good thing, I think. Anyway, enough of the speculation; here are some of our picks. If you see something you like, click on the image and it'll take you to Amazon.

Mature Content by Megan Erickson and Santino Hassell-- "Without exception, each book in this series gives me things to contemplate about our cyber world and never fails to widen my view of things. This ability to open my eyes, have such authenticity in the plot and characters, and have me enjoy the ride while doing all that are just a few of the many reasons why I literally rejoice when I see something come across my social media about the Cyberlove series." More from our review here.

Salvaged by Jay Crownover-- " Honestly, when I go into a Jay Crownover reading experience I know that I'm going to get an ending that feels right, so that's not the mystery I'm waiting to unlock in her novels. What I'm always eager to see is how, exactly, Crownover is going to get us to that ending. " More from our review here.

Bad Penny  by Staci Hart -- "Man oh man do we need more characters like Penny in our lives; she is delightfully irreverent and full of sass and hilarious and there was so much to appreciate about her. Penny does what she wants and loves what she does--whether that is her job or her men--and what's not to love about that, right? " More from our review here.

Dating-ish by Penny Reid-- "Watching their romance unfold on the page gave me all sorts of feelings: I laughed, cringed, gasped, shook my head, felt disbelief, wanted to shake both of them at different times, and swooned. " More from our review here.

The Impossible Vastness of Us by Samantha Young-- "I had many thoughts as I read The Impossible Vastness of Us but the one that kept floating to the surface was how much I know many of my students would love this novel. Even though the high school experience in this novel feels more dramatized than what I see on my campus, there were a lot of feelings and situations that I really think many of my students would relate to." More from our review here.

Oversight by Santino Hassell --"The ending of Oversight has me hungry for answers about so many things and eager to see which of those things Hassell focuses on in the last book. He's done a really great job of handling PNR and romance and suspense and really keeping the threads of all of those things going in a way that is interesting and satisfying while keeping me on edge as I wait for more. " More from our review here.

A Girl Like Me by Ginger Scott--"A Girl Like Me picks right up with the story of Joss and Wes and is the perfect follow up to  A Boy Like You. All of my questions were answered and in typical Ginger Scott fashion, she somehow managed to not only deepen my affection for her characters, she also managed to keep me on my toes with how Joss and Wes's story would play out. I promise you, she had me going all the way to the very end." More from our review here.