It’s the first Whatcha Reading in July. Here’s how we’re kicking off the month:

Lara: I’ve just started Bald-Faced Liar by Victoria Helen Stone. ( A ) I’m only a chapter or so in, but I’m enjoying it so far. Will report back!

Amanda: I’m happy to report I read four books in a week. WHO AM I?! Most of them have been rather middling dark romances. For a change of pace, I realized I never finished the Girl Meets Duke series by Tessa Dare. I’m going to breeze through books two and three, since I think both will work for bingo categories.

Sarah: Four books? And historicals?!

What have you done with Amanda?

Elyse: I’m back into historicals as well. I think given my anxiety over current events (climate change, healthcare, human rights) I can’t read a contemporary without getting pulled out of it by my brain.

I was reading a contemporary where the heroine owned her own small business and my brain was like right but how does she get health insurance and will her rates soar in the next year causing her to close shop and she lives in a small town where there aren’t a lot of employment opportunities to begin with and also …

Sarah: “Not here. Not now.”

Elyse: Which isn’t to say things weren’t shitty in the past.

Sarah: Oh, for sure.

It’s sort of like the “Earl had to die” genre. Fits a lot of different types of books. “Not here. Not now” fits for fantasy, sci-fi, mysteries, etc. I also have let go entirely of the idea that historical romance is anywhere near an accurate representation of the past. To quote Melody from Heaving Bosoms, it’s “Englandtimes.”

Amanda: Actually, I read 5! And one was a re-read. Certainly I’ve been body snatched. I would also make the bad decision of starting a book at 10pm and know I can read pretty quickly, I’d be like, “Well, Kindle says if I keep up my pace, I can be done in an hour and a half.” So most of my books were finished between 10pm-1am.

Elyse: I also think I have reached a point in perimenopause where I can’t read a lot of dark romance because my tolerance for masculine bullshit is at an all time low. Oh he’s stalking you? Hit him with your car. Fuck that guy.

Amanda: Oh that’s so interesting! Because I think the ridiculous, over-the-topness of dark romance feels more like escapist fantasy to me. I noticed that I read those faster when compared to the historicals because everything is taken with a grain of salt.

Claudia: I’m slogging through one historical right now that shall remain nameless because it’s not the book, it’s ME.

I just can’t focus right now.

Elyse: Season 2 of The Buccaneers and season 3 of The Gilded Age are out now so that’s also influencing me.

I started a historical where the heroine’s big problem is her boob falls out of her dress at a ball and that is basically the level of conflict I can emotionally handle.

Sarah: I am reading one of the Osman covered mysteries: The Assassin’s Guide to County Gardening

I wasn’t sure if it was going to work but then the assassin told a terrible man what he would do if the terrible man didn’t stop being terrible and I was ON BOARD.

Tara: I listened to The AI Con by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna, ( A | BN | K | AB ) which I highly recommend. The whole thing is excellent, but my favourite chapter is the one that explains why AI boosters and AI doomers are two sides of the same marketing hype coin.

I also recently finished A Rare Find by Joanna Lowell, which was very cozy and lovely.

Claudia: I have that last one in my queue. I really like Joanna Lowell’s writing.

Whatcha reading this month? Let us know in the comments!