32. The Earl Takes All

By Lorraine Heath (384 pp, ebook)

Fated Mates podcast did a deep dive on this book code name "the gorilla twins" so I had to read it before my listen. This is an amazing historical romance that is hard to describe in a sentence or two. A beautiful lady is married to the earl. He and his twin go off on an adventure and there's a tragedy and the non-husband returns. But he has to pretend to be the husband because a baby is on the way. Must read for romance fans -- this book is a quite a ride.

31. Life and Death

By Stephenie Meyer (400 pp, ebook)

This is the last Stephenie Meyer I hadn't read. I watched the movies during October and went back and found this. It's Twilight with the genders swapped except for only a couple of characters. This did not work for me at all. The whole time I kept trying to translate which character was which rather than read the book as is. The things your average reader liked about the series are gendered. We like seeing Edward be so protective of Bella, throwing her on his back and climbing a tree, straining against the urge to kill her. It's not the same with Edythe and Beau. Edythe throwing Beau over her back and climbing a tree wasn't the same buzz. And it was weird but I didn't buy Edythe's infatuation the same way I did Edward's. But also: I kept picturing Edythe as Alice.

30. Neon Gods

By Katee Robert (384 pp, ebook)

I am updating this in late December but I read this book in October. Am I really that far behind in my updates? This is an author I heard a lot about and I like to give everything a try. This is a super spicy modern retelling of Hades and Persephone. I really liked the connection between the main characters and their loyalty to each other in the midst of a dysfunctional environment. I didn't think the Olympus re-telling totally worked -- it was more like using that for shortcuts in character creation but if you'd renamed everyone Steve and Kaylie no one would have noticed. Fun to read. Definite recommend for people who like their romance reading with high heat.

29. This Bird Has Flown

By Susanna Hoffs (368 pp, ebook)

I was a huge Bangles fan back in the day and I had no idea Hoffs had written a novel. The algorithm fed it to me. I love books with musicians. This is the story of a musician who had one huge hit 10 years ago that was a cover of a lesser song from a huge artist. She's been foundering since. Her manager invites her to come to England to buckle down and write some new songs and she meets and makes out with a stranger on a plane. Then my musician book quickly became a romance novel which was unexpected but I didn't mind. Except the MC is a grown ass woman and she approached this relationship like a teenager and is jealous and nosey -- I struggled with her. Her beau is charming but has secrets of his own and everything unravels and then the book turned back into a musician story with a dramatic set piece involving the huge artist. I liked the writing and characters and enjoyed the book even with the frustrations described above.