What We’ve Been Reading

The Collection

Explore our full library of honest reviews and literary recommendations.

It Takes a Thief

I have a soft spot for Anne Stuart’s books. When she’s at her best, her romances are a masterclass in dark, gripping romance, her heroes are morally iffy and complex…

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Elsewhere

In 2022, I was, in the best way, destroyed by Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I thought it was my first experience with her fiction—until I came across…

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How To End a Love Story

How to End a Love Story is billed a romance shaped by grief and healing. It delivers a shallow, joyless hash instead. I’ve read it–you probably shouldn’t. This is a…

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Nothing But Trouble

I loathe football and you couldn’t pay me to watch a hockey game and yet two of my favorite romance series feature each: Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Chicago Stars (football) and…

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One Forbidden Evening

Jo Goodman hasn’t published a historical romance in over five years and more’s the pity. Her work, often dark, always smart, and peopled with leads that feel vividly real, has…

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Eleanore of Avignon

As a child, I’d clasp the hand of another on the playground, skip in a circle, and sing Ring-a-ring-a-roses, A pocket full of posies, Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down….

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Untouched

There’s a certain satisfaction in finding a romance novel that’s fully aware of its contradictions. Maisey Yates’ Untouched is one of those books that pulls you in, even as you…

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Written on Your Skin

Meredith Duran, whose absence from the world of historical romance feels like a gaping wound in the genre, is one of the finest writers to ever pen a love story….

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The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells

Rachel Greenlaw’s The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells opens with intrigue but fizzles before it can fully cast its spell. I had high hopes—her previous novel, Compass and Blade, was…

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The Finest Print

Looking for a well-written historical romance that also delves into Victorian-era newspaper taxes? The Finest Print offers both. You’ll also learn about penny bloods—now called penny dreadfuls—the era’s available birth…

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Creation Lake

Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake has been met with rapturous praise. It’s vital and profound, it consolidates Kushner’s status as one of finest novelists working in the English language, and daring,…

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Midnight Man

This book’s boinking is bonkers. The first time the two leads have sex, a day after they first meet, it’s against a wall and the hero is clinging so tightly…

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