.10 category romance between medical appointments

Late icy drive ride to the hospital for a medical appointment for my daughter. It's that time of year that just makes you feel a little bit sad.

When I am feeling too overwhelmed, I scroll through my kindle and grab one of my category romances.

This week I have extra cups of pour over with my new locally roasted single origin and read any and everything that I feel that calls to me. 

I'm having some problems sleeping and I just grab a romance or lighter read in the nighttime (Hello Barbara Pym :).

cw: anxiety, panic attacks
spoke too soon: dnf @43%
not the book- it's me i struggle
so much with contemporary fiction 

So far, I am remembering how great some authors write for Harlequin. It's so nice to have a book going that is just entertaining. I am loving it.

Off to relax after this long day. 

Recent Reads That Kept Me Sane: Spring Edition

Escapist fiction. Nothing wrong with it. I love it. It's keeping me sane. VERY sane.

I love my classics.

I love my literary fiction.

But, I've had to put most of those to the side for now. I never thought I'd say those words, but my brain can barely hold on to what is vital and necessary.

I am burned out. Fully flamed.

Romance novels and cozy mysteries are saving me these days.

My life is HARD right now and I LOVE well-written romance. I've been having a great time reading (and DNFing) a few books lately.

Books I've loved lately

LOVE this series

I normally cannot 
binge read cozies, 
but this series is different!

Another series I binged
I LOVE this one

These books hold up well
being read back to back

I didn't expect to love this
one as much as I did.
AMAZING.
The hero was delicious.

NOT the typical age-gap
TRUST me.
I struggle with those 
and this was romantic.

Books that have been okay-ish

I enjoyed this one. I don't
do a lot of historicals.
This was good.

My first Tiffany Roberts.
It was steamy. I really liked it,
but it felt about 75-100 pages
too long.

What I'm reading right now

This is on KU!

I've heard great things,
and my hold finally
came in from the library
update: DNF

If lightening up my reading has taught me anything, it's that it's all good. It's fantastic to read light novels with ONE or two (maybe) heavier reads to anchor it all down.

As someone who does NOT work in publishing, english lit, and is NOT a grad student in any of those subjects, I've realized just how much bookish content is made by those whose business or work revolve around the more intense novels.

Though it takes me out of the circles and conversations (let's be honest, people have called me crazy for saying I will focus on romance), I am in heaven now.

Happy light reading my slow living friends.

Lightening Up with Kindle Unlimited

I DNF a lot of cozy mysteries and romance novels.

I want to be able to read more of them than I am able, but I have been making progress with lightening up in general and that translates into being okay with a book NOT being life changing. 

As a result, I re-subbed to KU and downloaded a ton of books (20 to be exact!).

I love trying nonfiction from KU, easy (recommended cozies), and some rom-com type of books to help me ease up.

I've been struggling a bit lately with insomnia and bad dreams, and heavy classics and transformative literary fiction has NOT been helping.

Here's what I've downloaded lately. No shame in my game (can't believe I just said that). 

I'm almost ashamed of how difficult this felt. After a zillion years in college/grad school, I remember longing for the ability to read a "light" novel. Now that I am able to do so, I STILL read through classics and literary fiction novels with pretty much ignoring any real genre fiction though it brings me some joy.

I...

Don't work in publishing. Don't work as a professor in English Lit. I'm going to take the advice of a few people and try to lower my stress levels by living through lighter novels that are easy page-turners and allow myself this respite from intense living.

I've started Vacation Wars on audio and while I have to stop dissecting the childishness of the protagonist, I am taking this for what it is... a rom-com that meant for enjoying. I actually found myself laughing out loud :)