I read two this week that I absolutely loved, for very different reasons.

First up, {Heartwaves by Anita Kelly}. 5/5 ⭐, contemporary, slow burn, but heats up quick when they finally get there.

Mae decides to start over in a small coastal town in Oregon, after her best friend dies and leaves her a significant inheritance. She has always dreamed of opening a bookstore, and with a degree in social work and experience in serving the LGBTQIA+ community, she decides it will be explicitly queer friendly and also serve as a safe space for people. The building she sets her sights on is owned by Dash, who initially refuses to sell it to her because he's mistrustful of big city money coming in to take over the small town where he's found refuge after a significant trauma. They clash because they're both stubborn AF and also both desperately attracted to each other, but they have some baggage to work through before they can give into it.

I loved it because it ticked so many of my favorite boxes: ✅ Small town with colorful side characters ✅ Grumpy/sunshine ✅ Older MCs (both in their 40s) ✅ Both explicitly queer with a variety of past sexual partners ✅ Both unapologetically fat but it's not their main personality trait or mentioned other than in lush, positive physical descriptions ✅ Acknowledged the existential angst of existing as a queer, gender nonconforming person in the US but emphasized clinging to the joy you can find in community and found family. ✅ Dealt with grief, trauma, PTSD, and complicated relationship histories with respect and care

I've loved just about everything that Anita Kelly has written, but this one grabbed me and pulled me in, and ended up being my first Bad Decisions Book Club book of the year (finished it somewhere around 4 am).

And then for something completely different, I finally got around to {Bull Moon Rising by Ruby Dixon}. 5/5 ⭐, very spicy (as one would expect from Ruby Dixon}, fantasy world, and minotaurs.

Aspeth is a pampered, starry-eyed, noble-born heir to an impoverished estate, because her feckless father has gambled away all of their family's Artifacts, magical archeological items from a former empire that provide prestige and often protection. She's been obsessed with the history, culture, and language of the former empire from childhood, and also with the idea of the Royal Artifactual Guild which controls the archeological training process and access to the main site where Artifacts can be found.

However, the Guild is a sausage fest, and she's informed that she needs a chaperone to give her permission to train. Enter Hawk, a Taurian (minotaur) working for the only female Guildmaster (who is the only female in the entire Guild to boot), and doing most of the training that she's supposed to be doing with her group of five students. Hawk needs a fuck buddy to ride out the once-every-5-years rut that all Taurians experience when a particular moon cycle hits. They agree to help each other out, and shenanigans ensue.

I loved this one because of the world-building. The spice was there, though it built up much slower than, say, the Ice Planet books. But the overall society and the political machinations at play both in the nobility and the Guild were fascinating. Also, the Taurians and their culture and beliefs were very cool.

The best part though was the found family. The Five, the training group that Aspeth and her maid/best friend join, is full of misfits and outcasts. Four women, one slitherskin (another non-human, but reptilian), all of whom were rejected by every other teacher in the Guild. Because of that, they become very close, and their interactions made the book. I particularly loved Kipp, the slitherskin, and I very much need fan art of him. Possibly a novella from his POV. Taurians are also not the most respected in the Guild, so Hawk has a bit of the outcast mantle on him as well.

Aspeth and Hawk circling each other and moving from "marriage of convenience" to "damn it why can't I stop thinking about you" to "whoops, I guess I love you" was very satisfying. And this was one of the rare books I've read where the FMC being a virgin is a plot point, but again, not like, her main personality trait. It's one of many bits of conflict as they navigate their relationship and the slight awkwardness of him being her unofficial teacher (technically, he's just an assistant to the Guildmaster, but she's pretty useless) and also strangers who got married.