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Jefferson County, Alabama, United States

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Wednesday, February 14, 2024

closed door romance

 

The next Reader’s Advisory Roundtable (RART) meeting will be on Wednesday, April 10th at 9:30am.  If you are interested in nominating your library to host the meeting, let me know by February 20th.  Otherwise, we will meet in the conference room here at O’Neal Library.  The topic up for discussion in April is historical mysteries.  I look forward to seeing you there!


In attendance today:

Holley W, O’Neal
Melanie L, Hoover
Cara W, Center Point
C Gilliam, Trussville
Kenyata R, East Ensley BPL
Erika W, Powderly
Tamiko
Tamara H, Irondale
Terri
Bridget T, Homewood

Today, RART met to discuss closed door romances.  I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole concerning the phrase “clean romance,” along with other common genre/topic/descriptive phrases and I will link to those Bookriot articles, as well as the webpages discussed at the meeting, at the end of the post.

Authors discussed:

Kimberly Duffy
Laura Frantz
Karen White (the catalog had multiple options, not sure which it is)
Jodi Hedlund

Adult titles/series discussed:

Regency Faerie Tales series by Olivia Atwater
Ever since she was cursed by a faerie, Theodora Ettings has had no sense of fear or embarrassment—an unfortunate condition that leaves her prone to accidental scandal. Dora hopes to be a quiet, sensible wallflower during the London Season—but when Elias Wilder, the peculiar, handsome, and utterly ill-mannered Lord Sorcier, discovers her condition, she is instead drawn into dangerous faerie affairs.
Half a Soul
Ten Thousand Stitches

Victorian Faerie Tales series by Olivia Atwater
Governess Winifred Hall must use her knowledge of Victorian England's Fair Folk to rescue her charge, the lord-to-be of Witchwood Manor, from his faerie kidnappers.
The Witchwood Knot

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north in this “incredibly fun journey through fae lands and dark magic” (NPR), the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree (LGBTQ+ D&D style fantasy), and it’s prequel (don’t read it first though, spoilers!), Bookshops & Bonedust
Legends & Lattes
Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv, the orc barbarian, cashes out of the warrior’s life with one final score. A forgotten legend, a fabled artifact, and an unreasonable amount of hope lead her to the streets of Thune, where she plans to open the first coffee shop the city has ever seen.
Bookshops & Bonedust
Viv's career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam's Ravens isn't going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she's packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she'll never be able to return to it. What's a thwarted soldier of fortune to do? Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn't possibly imagine.

Harper Hall trilogy by Anne McCaffrey
(Holley’s review) If you’ve never heard of McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series, it’s fantasy canon published in the 70s that has fallen out of wide appeal over the years.  I read them all when I was younger, but this is really the only collection that has remained a favorite.  Print copies are thin on the ground, but the well-narrated eaudiobooks are available on Libby. This captures school setting interest, friend groups, dragons of course, and there is a romance of sorts in the last of the trilogy.  I hesitate to recommend it broadly because it was originally published FOR adults and several aspects of it have not aged well at all in the last 40 years: parental physical abuse, misogyny, lack of diversity, treatment (verbally and in author’s description) of a man with what seems to be Down Syndrome, etc.  I regularly listened to these three books once a year for over a decade. I just relistened last week for the first time in several years and was amazed anew by the narrator, Sally Darling.  An apt name!
Dragonsong
Dragonsinger
Dragondrums

Lady Violet Mystery series by by Grace Burrowes
In Volume 1, Lady Violet Belmaine emerges from two years of mourning less than enthusiastic about resuming her place in Polite Society. She’s talked into attending a country house party by her French physician friend, Hugh St. Sevier, only to find that the house party guests are preyed upon by a mysterious thief. Among the guests is Sebastian MacHeath, Marquess of Dunkeld. Violet once considered Sebastian her closest confidant, but war and the passing years have changed him. Nonetheless, when Sebastian’s valet, another veteran, comes under suspicion, Violet, St. Sevier, and Sebastian must work together to discover the true culprit, lest an innocent man be sent to the gallows for crimes he did not commit.
Lady Violet Investigates
Lady Violet Attends a Wedding
Lady Violet Finds a Bridegroom
Lady Violet Enjoys a Frolic
Lady Violet Holds a Baby
Lady Violet Goes for a Gallop
Lady Violet Pays a Call
Lady Violet Says I Do

Shadows of Swanford Abbey by Julie Klassen
Agatha Christie meets Jane Austen in this atmospheric Regency tale brimming with mystery, intrigue, and romance. When Miss Rebecca Lane returns to her home village after a few years away, her brother begs for a favor: go to nearby Swanford Abbey and deliver his manuscript to an author staying there who could help him get published. Feeling responsible for her brother's desperate state, she reluctantly agrees.

The medieval monastery turned grand hotel is rumored to be haunted. Once there, Rebecca begins noticing strange things, including a figure in a hooded black gown gliding silently through the abbey's cloisters. For all its renovations and veneer of luxury, the ancient foundations seem to echo with whispers of the past--including her own. For there she encounters Sir Frederick--magistrate, widower, and former neighbor--who long ago broke her heart. When the famous author is found murdered in the abbey, Sir Frederick begins questioning staff and guests and quickly discovers that several people held grudges against the man, including Miss Lane and her brother. Haunted by a painful betrayal in his past, Sir Frederick searches for answers but is torn between his growing feelings for Rebecca and his pursuit of the truth. For Miss Lane is clearly hiding something. . . .

Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews
Victorian high society's most daring equestrienne finds love and an unexpected ally in her fight for independence in the strong arms of London's most sought after and devastatingly handsome half-Indian tailor.

Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin
A modern-day Muslim Pride and Prejudice for a new generation of love.
Ayesha Shamsi has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being reminded that her flighty younger cousin, Hafsa, is close to rejecting her one hundredth marriage proposal. Though Ayesha is lonely, she doesn't want an arranged marriage. Then she meets Khalid, who is just as smart and handsome as he is conservative and judgmental. She is irritatingly attracted to someone who looks down on her choices and who dresses like he belongs in the seventh century.

Then There Was You by Mona Shroff
As a helicopter medic, Daniel Bliant saves other people’s lives. He’s cool under pressure, a calm presence for trauma victims on the worst day of their lives. So why can’t he heal himself? Annika Mehta loves her job as a kindergarten teacher, even if the low pay means she has a side gig tending bar at Phil’s. What she doesn’t need is Daniel. He’s wrong for her in every single way, but somehow, she can’t let him go. 

Bisclavret by K.L. Noone (ebook on Hoopla)
The Lord Bisclavret has a secret. A family enchantment. A wolf’s curse, transforming him when the moon is full. He hopes to be a good lord for his people, and he’s always been a loyal king’s man, even if the new king is inexperienced and scholarly. But one betrayal might leave him trapped in wolf-shape forever ... unless his king can save him. Very loosely based on the twelfth-century story by Marie de France, Bisclavret features a bisexual werewolf lord, a demisexual king who’d rather be a scholar, some exasperated men-at-arms, and very important stolen clothing.

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
"Fans of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society will adore The Jane Austen Society… A charming and memorable debut, which reminds us of the universal language of literature and the power of books to unite and heal." —Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Girls of Paris

The Dread Penny Society series by Sarah M. Eden
Elizabeth Black is the headmistress of a girls’ school in 1830s Victorian London. She is also a well-respected author of ”silver-fork” novels, stories written both for and about the upper-class ladies of Victorian society. But by night, she writes very different kinds of stories--the Penny Dreadfuls that are all the rage among the working-class men. Under the pseudonym Charles King, Elizabeth has written about dashing heroes fighting supernatural threats, intelligent detectives solving grisly murders, and dangerous outlaws romancing helpless women. Fletcher Walker began life as a street urchin but is now the most successful author in the Penny Dreadful market, that is until Charles King started taking all of his readers. Determined to find the elusive Mr. King, Fletcher approaches Miss Black. For the first time Elizabeth experiences the thrill of a cat-and-mouse adventure reminiscent of one of her own novels as she tries to throw Fletcher off her scent. But the more time they spend together, the more she loses her heart. Its upper-class against working-class, author against author where readers, reputations, and romance are all on the line.
The Lady and the Highwayman
The Gentleman and the Thief
The Merchant and the Rogue
The Bachelor and the Bride
The Queen and the Knave

Young Adult titles/series discussed:

Folk of the Air series by Holly Black (YA, similar to Sara J Maas' Court of Thorns & Roses series, but no sex)
Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him--and face the consequences.
The Cruel Prince
The Lost Sisters
The Wicked King
The Queen of Nothing
How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl's castle.

Something More by Jackie Khalilieh
A contemporary teen romance novel featuring a Palestinian-Canadian girl trying to hide her autism diagnosis while navigating her first year of high school, for fans of Jenny Han and Samira Ahmed.

A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft
In this romantic fantasy of manners from New York Times bestselling author Allison Saft, a magical dressmaker commissioned for a royal wedding finds herself embroiled in scandal when a gossip columnist draws attention to her undeniable chemistry with the groom

The Getaway List by Emma Lord
Holley's review: Ideal Reader: if cursing isn’t an issue, ANYONE! Great, sweet friends to (not) lovers here! Riley has just graduated from high school and is feeling at loose ends after spending the last 4 years very much under her (loving) mother’s thumb, so she impulsively strikes out for New York City to reconnect with childhood friend Tom, so they can resurrect their Getaway List of adventure.  Very healthy relationships with a diverse group of new friends AND Tom along with honest conversations with her mom as they navigate this new, more adult relationship.  I loved this one and wish I had a Getaway List of my own!

Links discussed:

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