What are you talking about, Angela?
ICYMI–and it seems like a lot of people did–we are reading Dry by Neal Shusterman and Damsel by Elana K. Arnold. If this is the first time you are hearing of either of these books, do not fear! Word around Facebook is that Damsel can be read in a day. And you have three!
Then, on Monday night, you grab a bottle of wine (or Dr. Pepper, you do you) and head over to Facebook at 9/8c and chat with us about all the things! It is that easy.
And now we make some decisions.
Usually we meet the 4th or 5th Monday of the month but it is December. I like you all, but I’m going to be drunk busy. We asked the group whether they wanted to bump it up early and read one book or bump it into January and read two per usual and you all decided to get through the holidays before we meet.
The next meeting will be January 7th at 9/8c.
Don’t worry, we are going to send out an event this time around so that we all remember in the holiday aftermath. This also means we have to pick two books. So, let’s get to the book choices.
*Obviously, I didn’t write these summaries; they came straight from their Goodreads pages.
My Favorite Half-Night Stand
Written By: Christina Lauren
Pages: 400
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series?: No
Current Goodreads Score: 4.13
This is going to be the one to beat. Christina Lauren is (are?) a favorite around here and for good reason. I was lucky enough to have gotten this book early and it was wonderful. I won’t be sad to have to read it again. The small problem is that it is not out until December 4th, but that really isn’t a problem since we are meeting a month after that.
Millie Morris has always been one of the guys. A UC Santa Barbara professor, she’s a female-serial-killer expert who’s quick with a deflection joke and terrible at getting personal. And she, just like her four best guy friends and fellow professors, is perma-single.
So when a routine university function turns into a black tie gala, Mille and her circle make a pact that they’ll join an online dating service to find plus-ones for the event. There’s only one hitch: after making the pact, Millie and one of the guys, Reid Campbell, secretly spend the sexiest half-night of their lives together, but mutually decide the friendship would be better off strictly platonic.
But online dating isn’t for the faint of heart. While the guys are inundated with quality matches and potential dates, Millie’s first profile attempt garners nothing but dick pics and creepers. Enter “Catherine”—Millie’s fictional profile persona, in whose make-believe shoes she can be more vulnerable than she’s ever been in person. Soon “Catherine” and Reid strike up a digital pen-pal-ship…but Millie can’t resist temptation in real life, either. Soon, Millie will have to face her worst fear—intimacy—or risk losing her best friend, forever.
Girls of Paper and Fire
Written By: Natasha Ngan
Pages: 336
Genre: YA Fantasy
Series?: First with more to come
Current Goodreads Score: 4.0
I have only read one James Patterson book and well….you don’t want to get me started (if you like him, I’m not hating, you can like what you like and I can not like what I don’t. But it isn’t just about his “writing”…). However, I am glad that he has started an imprint and is using his weight for good and getting recognition to new authors that would probably get overlooked without him. This sounds right up our alley, reminding me of Flame in the Mist and The Cruel Prince and, well, a lot of the books we love to read in BBC.
In this lush fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most oppressed class in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards still haunts her. Now, the guards are back, and this time it’s Lei they’re after–the girl whose golden eyes have piqued the king’s interest.
Over weeks of training in the opulent but stifling palace, Lei and eight other girls learn the skills and charm that befit being a king’s consort. But Lei isn’t content to watch her fate consume her. Instead, she does the unthinkable–she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens the very foundation of Ikhara, and Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide just how far she’s willing to go for justice and revenge.
From Lukov with Love
Written By: Mariana Zapata
Pages: 493
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series?: Nope
Current Goodreads Score: 4.35 (And in the final round for Goodreads Best Romance 2018)
I nominated this one because it is up for the Goodreads Award and because Mariana Zapata has been on my “authors I need to try” list for far to long. Three birds, one stone! Revolving around ice skating makes it sounds like the perfect winter read. I hope it gets steamy! And, bonus, it is free on Kindle Unlimited!
If someone were to ask Jasmine Santos to describe the last few years of her life with a single word, it would definitely be a four-letter one.
After seventeen years—and countless broken bones and broken promises—she knows her window to compete in figure skating is coming to a close.
But when the offer of a lifetime comes in from an arrogant idiot she’s spent the last decade dreaming about pushing in the way of a moving bus, Jasmine might have to reconsider everything.
Including Ivan Lukov.
Good Omens
Written By: Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
Pages: 412
Genre: Fantasy
Series?: No
Current Goodreads Score: 4.25
I should only have to say four things: Terry Pratchett; Neil Gaiman; David Tennant; New Series.
This one has been around for awhile. Almost as long as I have been alive. It is finally going to be created into a mini series and I have a feeling that it is going to get a lot of coverage around here. Neil Gaiman is a god in my world, yet I have only read his children’s book (Fortunately, the Milk is the perfect gift for any child. You are welcome.) so once again I’m trying to kill a few birds with one stone. You might say I’m using you, I say the power is intoxicating.
According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world’s only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner.
So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth’s mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture.
And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist . . .
That’s it?
I’m only giving you four books to choose from this month. Why? Because only Emily and I suggested books this round and that isn’t how it is supposed to work!
Where did you all go?
We know, if you aren’t participating in the live BBC, those notifications are insane. But don’t forget to turn them back on so you keep up with the going-ons the rest of the month!
We prefer to have you tell us what to read. Seriously. As you read about books that you think will make a good book club chat write them down! Keep a list on a post it, a Keep note on your phone, or, hell, PM us and we will remember them for you. Then, Emily and I do some research to narrow the list down to books that will be on the easier side to obtain (lots of library users in BBC!) and that we think will spark conversation. Then you vote on them just like we are doing now.
