Read with Pride Northwest discussion

We're always looking for book recommendations, especially ones that we can share with the GRNW Community!

So, for this GRNW Community Question, we ask:

What are some of your favorite reads from 2013?

To get the conversation started, we reached out to some of GRNW's authors and GoodReads community members to get their thoughts and recommendations.

From group member Juleslovestoread:

"One of my favorite reads of this year was Memorizing You by Dan Skinner. That book rocked my world so hard. It affected me like nothing I have read in a very, VERY long time. It was just incredibly beautiful, and emotional, and unforgettable. *sigh*

From GRNW 2014 author M.J. O'Shea:

"So, confession, I haven't read all that many MM books this year. I've gotten back into my sci-fi adventures. BUT I did read one from Anna Martin (I beta read it actually) and It'll be coming out before the end of the year from Dreamspinner. It's called Jurassic Heart and I totally loved it. Mostly because I'm a sucker for anything either archaeology related or in this case paleontology, but also because it's a fun mystery where the romance is secondary. I love that we're getting more and more books in the genre now that aren't 100% romance focused. I think the addition of more sci-fi, mystery, fantasy, and adventure will bring in new readers that might not have picked up a traditional romance. I hope more authors take the chance to go in that direction."

From GRNW 2014 author Sasha L. Miller:

"My favorite reads from 2013 would have to be Dandy by Jaidon Wells and Irregulars, an anthology with stories by Nicole Kimberling, Josh Lanyon, Astrid Amara, and Ginn Hale.

I loved both books for totally different reasons: Dandy is one of the few books that made me honest to god laugh out loud multiple times. I really, really enjoyed the relationships between the characters, particularly between Cassidy and his brother, and Andrew was the perfect straight man. It was fantastic.

Irregulars is the best anthology I've read all year. I'm a huge sucker for police procedurals, and this book was great for that. It also added an awesome fantastical element, which is a sure-fire way straight to my heart. ;3 The shared world was maintained wonderfully across the stories, and I loved the different perspectives each author brought to the book."

And from GRNW group member MandyM:

"2013 has been a disappointing year for me with m/m romance. For several reasons. This is my fifth year of reading in this genre and the novelty has definitely worn off. These days the sameness of the stories, the lack of imagination in the writing, the increasingly short word counts, and the increasingly high prices have resulted in my reading less and less m/m and returning to other genres for my reading needs.

However...

At the beginning of 2013 there was a spate of shifter romances that broke the mold. A Shadow of Wings by Linda Gayle, Taming the Bander by Summer Devon, Love Bites: A Feral Hearts Tale by D. River, and my favourite, Winter Wolf by S.P. Wayne. This story places an isolated and skittish werewolf and a not-so-straight human teacher together in a beautiful wilderness setting. The friendship that grows between them is captivating. I love a slow burn romance and this one is real slow! Like most books it has flaws but the storytelling is magic.

WW is self-published (as are two of the other shifter stories I mentioned and another 2013 standout Chance Assassin: A Story of Love, Luck, and Murder). Up until recently I've been a big fan of self-publishing and have read some enormously creative books by SPA's. It's a shame that the recent policy changes on Goodreads have turned so many readers away from this publishing paradigm."

What do you think? What are your fave reads from this year? Are you excited like MJ about more mixed-genre books hitting the market? Do you agree with Mandy that self-published books are becoming the new competition to look out for?

We'd love to hear your thoughts and recs! :D

I would +1 MJ O'Shea's comment, "I think the addition of more sci-fi, mystery, fantasy, and adventure will bring in new readers that might not have picked up a traditional romance". That would bring me back into the fold. Mysteries like this year's Billy's Bones, and historicals like Brothers of the Wild North Sea, Provoked, and (paranormal historical) The Magpie Lord were really enjoyable and seemed quite successful with readers. There are heaps of readers asking for m/m historical recs at the moment.

Personally I'd love to see more Scifi. And novel length like they're written in mainstream fiction. There is currently a big renaissance of female authors in scifi. Everyone's talking about writers like Ann Leckie and R Lee Smith. It would be great to see female m/m authors capitalizing on that too.

MandyM wrote: "I would +1 MJ O'Shea's comment, "I think the addition of more sci-fi, mystery, fantasy, and adventure will bring in new readers that might not have picked up a traditional romance". That would brin..."

I'll have to +1 your +1 of MJ's rec. I LOVE cross-genre or mixed genre books, so things like The Magpie Lord and Spirit Sanguine that include a mystery, Dragon Slayer that has all the fantasy, or the extreme-everything-mash-up that is The Foxhole Court totally make my day. (I too would love-love-love more sci-fi.)

I'll have to add to my fave 2013 reads some titles from this year's M/M Romance Group event: Nor Iron Bars a Cage, You Get Full Credit For Being Alive, Treasure (which I'm pretty biased on since it was my prompt), and The Lodestar of Ys.

That whole event though is stellar, since it's basically a truckload of free stories by some amazing authors, both established and new. It's a great way to "test-drive" an author and their style as well as a nice way for authors to grab new readers.

Lou wrote: "Put me down for The Magpie Lord. It was a breath of fresh air. Can I count The Shattered Gates? The print books came out this year. :P

Sadly, I don't get to read much these days."

Re: Shattered Gates-- sure, why not? :D Plus, this question can be open to things read this year too.

I didn't have much time to read this year, but I managed to sneak a few hours on my Kindle now and then. I enjoyed a few books mentioned already in this thread, but here's a couple of books that haven't been mentioned yet. I really enjoyed The Broken Triangle. It's a friends to lovers story (not a menage) and one I thoroughly enjoyed. There is a related story, which is BDSM so you might or might not want to read it first. Personally I don't think it's necessary to enjoy this story. References to the earlier story are clearly explained. Grime and Punishment was another story I'd recommend. The main character's business is crime scene clean up, which is pretty unusual.

Pender wrote: "I didn't have much time to read this year, but I managed to sneak a few hours on my Kindle now and then. I enjoyed a few books mentioned already in this thread, but here's a couple of books that ha..."

Great recs, Pender! I haven't read the Broken Triangle yet, but I am a fan of Davitt and Snow's style. I really enjoyed their Truthful Change and Laying a Ghost.

ttg wrote: "Great recs, Pender! I haven't read the Broken Triangle yet, but I am a fan of Davitt and Snow's style. I really enjoyed their Truthful Change and Laying a Ghost. ..."

Oh, I haven't read those. I'll have to put them on my wish list. Thanks.

I've read several of the suggestions above and agree (especially Magpie) but also thought Bone Rider by J. Fally was quite fun. Given that one of the main characters is an "intelligent weapons systems" it may be of interest to readers looking for (light) romantic scifi. Lots of jokes for ET and action movie fans, too.