The Books I'm Reading Now
I'm reading the first in Rebecca Yarros's Empyrean series about a training college for wartime dragon riders, Fourth Wing; I'm reading Caroline O'Donoghue's contemporary fiction The Rachel Incident, about friendship and discovery with an Irish financial crisis as its backdrop; and I'm listening to Ali Hazelwood's newest science-focused rom-com about a complicated star-crossed relationship between physicists, Love, Theoretically.
What are you reading these days, bookworms?
01 Fourth Wing (Empyrean #1) by Rebecca Yarros
Fourth Wing is the first in Rebecca Yarros's Empyrean fantasy series, about a war college for dragon riders.
Twenty-year-old Violet was hoping to live out a studious, satisfyingly quiet future in the Scribe Quadrant.
That is, until the cutthroat commanding general--who also happens to be Violet's mother--pushes her to vie with the rest of Navarre's young people to secure spots in the select Riders Quadrant, as dragon riders.
Violet is smaller than average, without the drive to fight. But the war is raging, leadership is clearly keeping secrets, and working with the ruthless, deadly dragons is starting to feel like her best bet.
You might also like these other books I've read and reviewed about dragons.
02 The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
In Caroline O'Donoghue's contemporary fiction The Rachel Incident, main character Rachel is an Irish university student working in a Cork bookstore, dating a boring but reliable young man from her high school, and living at home when she meets James.
James is irresistible, vivacious, mischievous, he insists that he's heterosexual--and Rachel is immediately swept into his powerful orbit. They move in together and she subsumes her life in order to be part of his.
Meanwhile, she is bowled over by her grumpy, handsome, strongly opinionated literature professor, Dr. Byrne, and in an attempt to ingratiate herself to him, she insinuates herself into a complicated role of supporting the publication of his academic-press book through her bookstore job.
Years later, Rachel runs into an acquaintance from her past, which spurs her to think back to the events and relationships that shaped her during her college years.
I received a prepublication copy of this title, published June 27, courtesy of NetGalley and Knopf.
03 Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Elsie Hannaway is an adjunct physics professor, but her dream is to dedicate herself to a career in research. She's gotten some positive attention for her innovative work on liquid crystals, but her crochety male advisor assures her there's little interest in hiring her for full-time positions.
To help pay the bills, Elsie is a paid escort (who does not have sex with her clients, as she keeps explaining to them) who is fake dating a nice man and attending family functions in order to keep everyone off his back.
Now Elsie has the interview of a lifetime, at MIT. But a series of coincidences and misunderstandings lead to her being unaware until she arrives that the head physicist on site...is her fake boyfriend's brother.
I received a prepublication audio version of Love, Theoretically, narrated by Thérèse Plummer, courtesy of Libro.fm and Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group.
If this book sounds intriguing, you might also be interested in the books on my Greedy Reading Lists Six Rom-Coms Perfect for Summer Reading, Six Great Light Fiction Stories Perfect for Summer Reading, and Six More Great Light Fiction Stories.