Dear Lady Truelove . . . I have fallen in love, truly and completely in love, for the first time. The man whom I hold in such passionate regard, however, is not of my station. He is a painter, a brilliant artist. Needless to say, my family would not approve . . .

Henry, Duke of Torquil, wouldn’t be caught reading the wildly popular “Dear Lady Truelove” column, but when its advice causes his mother to embark on a scandalous elopement, an outraged Henry decides the author of this tripe must be stopped before she can ruin any more lives. Though Lady Truelove’s identity is a closely guarded secret, Henry has reason to suspect the publisher of the notorious column, beautiful and provoking Irene Deverill, is also its author.

For Irene, it’s easy to advise others to surrender to passion, but when she meets the Duke of Torquil, she soon learns that passion comes at a price. When one impulsive, spur-of-the-moment kiss pulls her into a scorching affair with Henry, it could destroy her beloved newspaper, her career, and her independence. But in the duke’s arms, surrender is so, so sweet . . .

Since I revisited my obsession with historical romance novels back in 2014 by reading my first Tessa Dare, Romancing the Duke, I’ve been constantly on the hunt for more authors who write the sort of historical romance I love. I’ve found Julia Quinn (an oldie but a goodie), Lenora Bell, Courtney Milan, among others. When I first asked for recommendations, Guhrke was one of the names I got from several people, and those people were spot on. Guhrke writes solid, creative, feminist af romance novels, and they’re absolutely what I expect of historical romance of recent years.

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One-night stands are supposed to be with someone convenient, or wickedly persuasive, or regrettable. They aren’t supposed to be with someone like him.

But after a crazy Vegas weekend celebrating her college graduation—and terrified of the future path she knows is a cop-out—Mia Holland makes the wildest decision of her life: follow Ansel Guillaume—her sweet, filthy fling—to France for the summer and just…play.

When feelings begin to develop behind the provocative roles they take on, and their temporary masquerade adventures begin to feel real, Mia will have to decide if she belongs in the life she left because it was all wrong, or in the strange new one that seems worlds away.

Launching into Lauren’s second series, I’m met with the first book I wasn’t completely in love with. That’s not to say this book isn’t good or sexy or exactly on brand for Lauren; it just didn’t work for me as well.

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What I’ve Been Up To:

July was a pretty quiet month, but quiet in a good way. That said, I’ve definitely been hankering for a vacation. I’ve traveled outside the US for the last few years in a row, and, while I know it makes both financial and logistical sense not to do so this year, I’m pretty bummed at my lack of travel plans. Basically I’m looking forward to seeing my librarian friends and Lenore later this year, but I’m also already mourning the possibility that I’ll spend four of my vacation days on a staycation. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I prefer to use them to travel.)

I’ve been getting really good at making pancakes (my secret is a lot of alcohol lol), because they’re one of my boyfriend’s favorite foods (and I like them too or I wouldn’t bother haha). Doing that has made me realize how much fun I have messing with a recipe, combining flavors to see if it’s possible to ascend to new heights of deliciousness. My absolute favorite thing is adding a bunch of cinnamon to them, though I do more than that

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Since the beginning of the year, I abandoned my most popular post, Cover Snark. It was a tough decision but one I needed to make. Weekly posts where I’m trying to be funny take a lot out of me. Still, I’ve definitely missed being more dialed in to what’s releasing, and I miss looking at book covers. Lenore Appelhans, dear and talented friend, suggested that I do a Mini Cover Snark post, which was an excellent idea except that I’m not so great at moderation in some things, and there’s just no way my perfectionism would be cool with the process of picking and choosing what to include. So, no, Cover Snark is not back, but I’m here to dish about covers again.

My plan is for this series of posts to be monthly, as opposed to weekly. It will cover (pun intended) the covers that I find that wow me. It’s all positive all the time, because that’s the mindset I’ve been working toward. It’s not attempting to be comprehensive of all covers ever. Most of the posts probably won’t be that long, but this one will be massive, because I don’t do things by half, so I’m going to try to get all the books with covers coming out after September. This should be similar but different.

There’s no doubt that some of my readers will be disappointed by this change. Honestly, I’m a bit sad to see Cover Snark go too. And I want to be clear that I’m not ending it to get more love from publishers or because I think there’s anything wrong with cover snarking. It’s just that I do not have the time or the creative energy to spend on those posts anymore.

Though I tried to be somewhat comprehensive, obviously the covers skew young adult and the adult titles come predominantly from SFF. And, most obviously, these are covers that appeal to my subjective aesthetics. Let me know which ones you love, have read (if you are one of the lucky few who has them early or just tell me about the author’s other books!), or desperately want to read. The posts will not usually be this long, if I keep to my monthly plan.

Titles link to the Goodreads pages for the books. Happy TBR hunting!

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I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A gripping novel about the depth of a sister's love; poised to be the next book you won't be able to stop talking about.

A missing girl on a journey of revenge and a Serial-like podcast following the clues she's left behind.

Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray—a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America—overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late.

Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page.

Despite my love and respect for Courtney Summers’ books, I’m always deeply hesitant to start them. In this case, I saw it on NetGalley, got super excited, requested, and then, when it came to read it, I second guessed. I knew it would be good (it was), but I also knew it would hurt (it did). I knew it wouldn’t be pleasant to read (it was more pleasant than I expected but also mostly yep).

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