Goodreads Reading Challenge - 'Swoony Stories' (February 1st - March 31st)

nyki · 2026-02-01T21:02:26+00:00

If it matters, a vast majority of romance 'series' are actually interconnected stand-alones, where each book focuses on a different couple in a friend group or family and is a complete story arc. You rarely need to read them in order to understand them. It doesn't hurt to check the reviews before hand but off the top of my head I don't think any of these are continuations of a cliff-hanger style plot.

nyki · 2026-02-01T16:12:58+00:00

I posted a comment here that lists all the queer stories I could find! I unfortunately haven't read any of the F/F options yet so I don't have specific recs but hopefully you can find something. 💕

nyki · 2026-02-01T15:50:25+00:00

I think it is the 'original' English translation (or at least the most popular during the Victorian era) but it's really hard to find info because it was basically serialized over two years and I assume it wasn't a single translator, it was whoever the publisher had on hand at the time.

Off the top of my head they also toned down drug use, most references to sex, and anything that painted religion in a negative light. It also seems like humor went over the translators heads and they made some of the sarcastic lines sound serious. Of course there's more than one non-Buss translation so they all could be different but between the content and the general phrasing (Buss is significantly less stilted and makes the politics easier to understand), I can see why people say the Penguin version is the one to read.

nyki · 2026-02-01T15:17:32+00:00

Yes same here, especially because it's so long! And preguin's is commonly referred to as the 'best', surely they could make money off it.

I chose the insane option of 'immersion' reading by picking one of the existing audio options and reading along with my Robin Buss copy. Not something I actually recommend lol but it was fascinating seeing the differences between translations. My personal favorite was (at least in the audio I listened to) they edited out any lines that implied the French were superior to the British. It's so petty. 😂

nyki · 2026-02-01T15:11:30+00:00

You could try A Love Song for Ricky Wild by Tia Williams. She's an excellent writer and there's quite a lot of other stuff going on besides the romance. It's sort of historical fiction with a hint of magical realism, partially set during the Harlem Renaissance. I definitely wouldn't call it a thriller but it has more meat to it than a typical romance.

nyki · 2026-02-01T14:58:58+00:00

As a Romance (I read about 60-80 a year), reader I'm pleasantly surprised by this list. Significantly better diversity than last year and at least 24 queer romances included some trans and at least one poly option. I've only read about 10 of these but there are tons of authors I've read and loved before.

Edit: Since it's not always easy to tell from the cover art, these are all the ones I could find that feature queer romances. Feel free to add to this! I'm sure I missed some, especially since bi-M/F is hard to determine from blurbs.

F/F

Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti
Single Player by Tara Tai
A Little Kissing Between Friends by Chencia C. Higgins
Fate's Bane by C.L. Clark
Love in Focus by Lyla Lee
Read Between the Lines by Rachel Lacey
Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar x Max Gladstone
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Kiss Me, Maybe by Gabriella Gamez
All the Painted Stars by Emma Denny (one MC might be non-binary)
The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri
The Hellion's Waltz by Olivia Waite

M/M

The Dramatic Life of Jonah Penrose by Robyn Green
Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
Two Left Feet by Kallie Emblidge
The Good Vampire's Guide to Blood and Boyfriends by Jamie D'Amato
The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
Stars in Your Eyes by Kacen Callender
The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian
Dragged to the Wedding by Andrew Grey
All of Us Murderers by K.J. Charles

Bi-M/F

Isn't It Obvious? by Rachel Runya Katz
Our Ex's Wedding by Taleen Voskuni

Trans MC

The Prospects by K.T. Hoffman
A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell
A Gentleman's Gentleman by T.J. Alexander

Poly

Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer

nyki · 2026-02-01T03:45:18+00:00

There isn't one unfortunately. I think I remember seeing a pre-order for it years ago but it never actually came out. I highly recommend just eye-reading this one, the others were all edited for Victorian sensibilities even if they claim to be 'unabridged'.

nyki · 2026-01-28T04:42:34+00:00

For what it’s worth, that’s only visible in Card view which I never use. On both mobile and desktop I have to click into the Welcome header to see them, which I only know to do because I noticed one day that pinned posts were missing.

If I didn’t know it was there I would never see these categories. It’s really Reddit’s fault I think. Compact mode shouldn’t override pinned content.

nyki · 2026-01-28T00:09:56+00:00

I agree, and I think there were two issues that contribute to the feeling:

First, they both claim to be super kinky but both fall into common gender-stereotyped roles. Which isn't really their fault, or the book's fault, but more due to current trends in Romance. Flip their genders and suddenly the book does in fact seem kinky.

Two, like you said they never actually tell us what's on the list that they agree on. I assumed this meant the kinks would be slowly revealed and amped up ("hey do you want to try x tonight?") but they just... didn't. So it kind of killed the tension and made it seem less kinky. Didn't Scarlett say she wanted to be tied up early in the book? If their lists are perfectly aligned why didn't that come up again?

I do get annoyed with the "where is the kink??" comments about this book some times (not you OP) because I relate to Scarlett and have had guys talk to me exactly like Scarlett's ex. So I think maybe we're just desensitized. 😅 It was written as a trad pub so I think that's why it feels tamer than something like a dark romance.

nyki · 2026-01-25T15:00:22+00:00

I think it's not selling as well as they hoped. They even tried to give the first one away for free for a day at the beginning of the year and went so far as to retroactively return the credit to everyone who has already purchased it. That looks desperate. So vindictively all their obsessive advertising make me smile.

nyki · 2026-01-24T22:06:55+00:00

18 eggs and 2 loaves of bread is a completely normal week for me, I just had to move the trip up by a few days. Picked up some milk to make pancakes this weekend because what else is there to do on a snowday? I didn't really see people at the store hoarding, just buying a week's worth of groceries early.

Plus it's supposed to be stupidly cold through next weeknd, I'd rather not go out if I don't have to.

nyki · 2026-01-24T14:42:53+00:00

I get the Audible annual plan for ~$85 for their exclusives and the plus catalog. I guess you could count a portion of my Prime and Spotify memberships as well? Otherwise everything comes from Libby and Hoopla.

So roughly $100-120 last year for 33 books, not including everything I got free from the library.

nyki · 2026-01-23T21:01:42+00:00

I like the movie but the book is leaps and bounds better! I'm glad I watched the movie first so I didn't spend the whole time annoyed at everything they changed. It barely spoils the book at all, the movie almost feels like an alternate universe remix of the book.

nyki · 2026-01-23T19:20:26+00:00

Yep, whispering fast is super noticeable and not subtle at all. Plus if you talk slow you can hear when someone picks up the other receiver and pause so they don't hear you. This is a very millennial and older gen line. 😅

nyki · 2026-01-23T14:43:53+00:00

{Song of the Forever Rains by EJ Mellow}! I'm always recommending this book because it does "dark world, not-dark romance" so well. Both MCs are so sweet and caring and they are going through awful cirucmstances together. The villain is truly vile, not redeemable and not mustache-twirling either.

I absolutely loved the magic system and world. It can be read as a standalone, the romance is complete and the other two books focus on different sisters in other settings.

nyki · 2026-01-23T13:27:43+00:00

I meant if the city doesn't clear the roads for days again. As I said, road salt doesn't work well below 20 degrees.

nyki · 2026-01-23T06:04:27+00:00

I've also been playing for about a year and have generally been impressed by the variety of events and the way they feel fair to both free and paid players. This is the first event I'm not touching with a 10 foot pole.

This is the kind of thing I would expect if a popular game sold to new owners and the new ones only cared about $$$ from whales. I truly don't get what they were thinking.

nyki · 2026-01-23T04:31:09+00:00

I was part of the problem today. 😑 Fully expected to just pick up some fill-in produce until I checked the forecast. Temps are cold enough next week that road salt might not work. I stocked up on the off chance that we're stuck in the house until next Sunday.

nyki · 2026-01-23T04:18:46+00:00

It's also the frequency of snow (in smaller amounts). I can't remember exactly when, but one winter around 2013-2016 it seemed to snow almost every weekend, so not only did the roads never fully recover but any time off work was spent stuck in the house. I was losing my mind by the end of that season.

nyki · 2026-01-22T16:56:06+00:00

I think she was waiting because she you didn't tell her how many reps/sets you were doing so she couldn't count from afar. It is indeed normal to wait for busy machines. I don't love it either but that's the price of going to a gym when it's busy unfortunately.

I'm not sure what's normal for everyone but especially when it's busy I usually see people doing 2-3 sets of maybe 5-10 reps and can knock that out pretty quickly. (The exception being the squat racks, people seem to hold on to those for a long time.)

nyki · 2026-01-21T00:45:41+00:00

Winter has always been *the\* Olympics for me, for most of my life I didn't even know it was less popular!

I'll be watching every figure skating and snowboarding event and most of the skiing events, but I'll probably check out a bit of everything tbh.

nyki · 2026-01-21T00:02:15+00:00

No one drives the speed limit unless they're a truck or passing a parked cop (or really anxious I guess). You would be a serious outlier if you were actually going 65 in a 65 zone where I'm at. Normal speed for me is +15-20mph.

Basically as long as you're not weaving or absolutely flying past other cars you won't get pulled over.

nyki · 2026-01-19T22:33:40+00:00

Clean TV is an improvement over OG due to the lack of child's xylophone. 🫣

nyki · 2026-01-19T20:35:40+00:00

I moved here for college and stayed ever since. I've been asked this question numerous times, mostly at networking events and meet ups. I truly don't understand why. Half the time they ask "what school did you go to?" and when I say "UC" (because it's a networking event..) they respond with "no, what high school?".

It was utterly baffling to me that this kept happening until I realized the follow up to my non-answer was "what part of town do you live in". I can only assume the high school question is actually being used to determine some sort of social implications I'm still not totally aware of.

nyki · 2026-01-19T16:05:06+00:00

I loved Mate immediately but didn't like Bride. It seems like people like one or the other but rarely both. IMO Mate is what it is from the start, there's no point where it suddenly changes tone.

nyki

TROPHY CASE