Auntie's Annex: February Shelves
Getting hot and steamy in the name of romance
Hello! Wow, first I would like to say HI HELLO to all my new subscribers! On Monday, I sent out this newsletter on reading readiness, the first in a series I have planned for March, and it took off in big ways - thanks in no small part to the amazing substackers who restacked, quoted, and shared. This community is so incredible and I am awed by the support. Drop me a hello if you’d like! I would love to know more about you.
So, y’all—my Library Stax newsletter on Monday recommends and reviews kid-lit titles and offers tips for raising readers, but on the 30th of every month (yeah, OK February, I’ll make an exception for you), I dive into the books that are on MY nightstand, because although I mom (it’s a verb) hard 24/7, I also read as much as I possibly can because it is my favorite thing to do and because I fully believe if you want someone to start doing something, doing it yourself is the best motivation. My kids see me picking up books, and my hope is that will transfer to them…for a while anyway — no need to tell me what happens in the teenage years, I plan to hold my breath and close my eyes the whole time.
Next Monday I will be back to kid-lit and reading readiness, and I can’t wait to see y’all there! But for now…
Pull up a cozy chair and pour yourself a glass of your favorite bevy because I’d like to welcome you to Auntie’s Annex — I imagine a cute narrow staircase, the stairs painted a rustic shade of seafoam green, leading up to a tiny attic room with a slanted ceiling, an open window with dappled light falling onto a well-loved armchair. There is no noise save the chirp of the birds, and even they understand they should probably STFU and let me read in peace. There is a tall glass of water. There are no smooshed bananas on my pants. Nobody is lovingly but disastrously using my body as an indoor playscape. I have arrived.
What does your dream reading nook look like today?
FROM THE STAX
February started with my dear sister (the Auntie for whom this newsletter is named) suggesting I read some romance, mostly because she wanted to gush with me about the “faerie-smut” that is The Court of Series. I happily acquiesced.
MEET ME IN THE MARGINS by Melissa Ferguson
Savannah works as an editor at a struggling publishing house that takes itself and literature very seriously, but she dreams of being a romance writer. When Savannah trips during a corporate meeting it is no longer just the future of the company that is up in the air, but all the pages to her romance novel to boot. Will Savannah get the boot for working on her manuscript at work? Will the company survive the passing of the torch to the next generation? Will romance thrive?
I hate to start reviews out with a dud, but this was my least favorite book I read this month. It had some inconsistencies that were hard to ignore, like how her eagle-eyed boss who notices everything, and everyone is scared of, fails to notice when she completely shirks her duties to spend hours in a secret room to exchange messages with her secret editor. Savannah would have been fired so fast. Also, the reveal is less of a reveal and more of a “yeah, obviously.” Also, at one point a character is described as having a laugh that was so hearty it made the carpet shake and that imagery gave me an immediate ick. Is this shag carpet? Is this person a fairy tale giant? Pass.
HAPPY PLACE by Emily Henry
Harriet is headed to her happy place — the cottage in Maine where she and her BFF’s spend their annual retreat. Unfortunately, she is going to ruin the trip when she has to finally admit to her friends that she and her fiance, Wyn, broke up. But before she can share the news, Harriet is surprised twice: Wyn is also on the trip (specifically NOT part of the plan) and the whole college crew is together one last time to celebrate their best friend’s wedding! Can Harriet and Wyn pretend they are still together and ignore their obvious chemistry for one last long weekend for the sake of their friends’ happiness?
I don’t know how she does it, but Emily Henry pulls on all my heartstrings at once. Did I read the bulk of this entire book in one night? Do I need to tell you anything else to make you want to read it? Steamy and sexy and gets me feeling all the feels like I am a teen girl all over again. Yes, please.
WEATHER GIRL by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Ari Abrams is a weather girl who loves the rain. Good thing she lives in Seattle and has a dream job of working at the local news station. Except things in the office have been a bit too stormy since the bosses broke up. After a disastrous holiday party, Ari stays to drink with the quiet and kind sports reporter Russel Barringer where the two hatch the plan to “parent trap” their bosses back together in hopes it will improve the office atmosphere (I can’t stop with the weather puns!) only to discover electrical currents brewing on unexpected fronts.
With loveable characters and a quirky-cute plot, this was a book I was happy to pick back up, but not one that burned as a red-hot must-read. It did hold a special place in my heart, being a Seattle girl myself. I’d say you should read this one on a rainy day. SPOILER LITE: It isn’t every day you see a depressed Jewish protagonist fall in love with a portly Jewish single dad, so a round of applause for having a cast of characters that don’t fit into the stereotypical molds. I don’t think the love interest’s eyes changed colors even once! (Why oh why is this a romance trope? I hate it so much).
HELLO STRANGER by Katherine Center
Sadie is a portrait artist who was just announced as a finalist in the most prestigious competition the art world has to offer. She has six weeks to come up with a brand new portrait and she needs to get cracking, but first, she needs to celebrate. On the way to her own party, disaster strikes in the form of a non-convulsive seizure that lands her in the hospital with a disorienting case of prosopagnosia - aka face blindness. (To say this romance took an unexpected turn would be an understatement). Will she be able to paint a portrait when she can’t see a face? What does this have to do with love? Is this also a story about complicated family relations? How?
What kept me coming back to this story was the great sense of “Wait, what?” I simply couldn’t believe it was a romance book that hinged on face-blindness. Once I was hooked by that, the story and characters were cute enough to carry on. Most of the people are stereotypes turned up to eleven, but I was invested enough to finish, so no real complaints there. Read this romance when you aren’t in the mood for romance.
A COURT OF MIST AND FURY by Sarah J. Mass
SERIES SPOILERS: Fayre is now the beloved immortal savior of Prythian and has to discover what her new high-fae life and power entail. Will she and Tamlin be able to put the horrors of under the mountain behind them? And what will become of her bond with Rhysand, the dark lord of the Night Court?
Ok, book one of this series asked a lot of me, and I am surprised I even finished it, but with THIS book comes redemption. Now I cannot wait to get my hands on book three and see what kind of powerful world-saving the newly unleashed and unstoppable queen and her sexy muscular winged dreamer man of the night have in store. You can take me to the Night Court any old time, please, and thank you.
LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonne Garmus
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is working hard to break the barriers around women in the overtly sexist 1960s lab, and it is not going as planned. Neither is her love life. Neither is raising her child as she was quite sure she never wanted kids. Neither is her cooking show she never intended to host. But life rarely goes as planned.
Not at all a romance, but still a lot about love. But mostly about the frustrations of being a woman in a world run by men. Sometimes this book was hard to read simply because I wish it wasn’t so applicable to now — it felt like a 2024 message couched in a 1960s setting and I don’t know if that made it a bit fantastical. Wouldn’t Elizabeth have just been replaced for her persistent boundary-pushing? It had me hoping her character was based on an actual woman who was able to push back. I loved Elizabeth, I loved the complicated family tree, I loved six-thirty and Mad, and the persistence of hope despite the heartbreak. Please read this book if you are a human.
THE BRUTAL TELLING (#5) by Louise Penny
To balance out all the romance, may I suggest some murder? Three Pines is an unmapped and quiet little French-Canadian town where hardly anything ever happens except for a surprising amount of murders. In the Brutal Telling, a mysterious body is found one morning at the Bistro. When a cabin full of treasure is discovered in the woods, Gamache needs to discover who killed the hermit and why they didn’t take any of his treasure.
Out of the Chief Inspector Gamache stories I have listened to so far, this one probably had the least pull for me. It was a little bit spooky, and I love/hated that it was a beloved member of the township who was involved in the killing, but the hermit and his treasure didn’t hook me. Still, don’t skip this book, it is wonderful and the series builds as you go, so the action is essential.
BURY YOUR DEAD (#6) by Louise Penny
Even the famed Chief Inspector Gamache makes mistakes — and the cost is too steep. The Chief is on a forced vacation after a very tense kidnapping case ends in a bloody shoot-out, and though he should be recuperating, he finds himself buried (pun intended) in yet another mysterious murder, all while grappling with his own ghosts.
Penny artfully draws us in, weaving three storylines into one book. It is a bold move to tell the most action-packed police shoot story as a haunting, a trapped and regretted memory, but I can’t imagine it executed in any other way. It so perfectly highlights and embodies Gamache to tell the story this way. If #5 was my least favorite so far, #6 might be my favorite.
I highly recommend listening to the Chief Inspector Gamache series on audiobook as Ralph Cosham brings the town and characters to life with perfect narration of the first ten books of the nineteen-book (!!!) series.
SORRY I’M LATE, I DIDN’T WANT TO COME: ONE INTROVERTS YEAR OF SAYING YES by Jessica Pan
And, for something completely different…a non-fiction! The synopsis is in the title, my friends. This is a book about an introvert saying YES to all the hard things she wants to scream NO to.
This was one of those books I kept on reading aloud to my partner, whether he questioned why I was guffawing or not. It was so wonderfully funny and delightful. I loved reading about all the many ways Jessica faced her fears, whether the remedy was bathing with strangers or yelling at a speech coach in a bad British accent, it was sheer delight to follow along every step of the way. Read this book if you also sometimes (always) would rather stay at home.
My good friend
(who composes beautiful music to pair with her musings over at ) recommended the brilliant substack byand now that we’ve both read her book I expect a book club happy hour STAT!ON THE NIGHTSTAND
in hand: The Overstory by Richard Powers is a slow read for me - I am still chugging along. Will I succeed? Only if these delicious romances stop distracting me! Speaking of, a neighbor just dropped of the rest of the Court Of Series so here we gooooo!
on Kindle: One Summer in Savannah by Terah Shelton Harris
Audiobook: A Trick of the Light (#7) by Louise Penny
ON DECK
Nora Ephron’s Heartburn is still waiting for me to pick her up. I’ve been distracted by my Kindle reads this month!
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead because someone on Substack is book clubbing it but now I fear whoever it is has been buried in the avalanche that is inspired newsletters - is it you?
I am second in the hold line for With Love, from Cold World by
and I can’t wait to get my hands on it, namely because I find her substack so wonderful. ADULTING
In my last newsletter, I quipped that one shouldn’t “read and drive” and was immediately (and fairly) corrected by several people who pointed out that audiobooks make the absolute perfect driving activity. TOO TRUE.
I realized that my oversight in this area probably stems less from my relationship with audiobooks and more from the fact that my cars are ancient — Flintsone era monstrosities which *GASP* do not have any way to readily connect to my phone. Instead, I resort to digging out CD mixes from the late 90’s and early aughts — one car even has a working tape deck so if anybody would like to send me books on tape, I’d willingly listen. And yes, we have all the doohickies and chords and plug-ins, but also, is this my vintage Death Cab CD? If I must. Rock on my friends.
See all of you beautiful humans on Monday for our regular kid-lit programming, and on the 30th of March for your next Auntie’s Annex. As always, your support is why I am here, so feel free to share and subscribe and like and do a happy dance and tell me what I should read next!
Happy reading y’all!
Thank you for the shoutout to my newsletter and I hope you enjoy the book!!! I love the way you write about what you're reading and excited about.
Yes please to a book club happy hour!! I loved Jess Pan’s book and laughed out loud so often while listening to it on my way to work that I regularly got concerned looks when stopped at traffic lights!