Sunday Soup - August 16

In The Soup This Week... Adrianna Dane, Candace Blackburn

Soup Dish:  on my mind
✽I don't have much in the way of interesting links for the Soup this week.  Lately I've been sort of an island in the stream (you're welcome for that earworm, if you're of a certain age) of social media.  I'm seeing a lot of it go by, having a look at what's interesting, but it's mostly washing on by without sticking with me too well.  Partly this is because the system I had for marking and remembering links is under reconstruction, as I'm finding that my Evernote extensions aren't working quite right in the latest round of browser updates and changes.

✽Our family spent the afternoon yesterday at the local Renaissance Faire, eating faire food (which is a little, but not entirely, different from fair food), drinking sarsaparilla soda, and perusing wares with all manner of anachronistic aspirations.  Flower crowns, weaponry, costumery, jewelry, soaps and oils, textiles, blacksmithed items -- I really enjoy this sort of shopping, and it's a welcome relief to me from the malls where everything looks exactly like everything in every other mall.  My younger daughter was obsessed this year with obtaining a paper parasol, and my older one brought home a cake of divine-smelling orange and clove soap. This is a favorite summer tradition, and our local weather yesterday made it one of the most enjoyable visits ever (usually it's way too hot for comfort).

What I'm reading
✽Following up on the Candace Blackburn feature last week, I picked up Return of the Lycan King, the first in a trilogy. Although I found it a little slow in places, I think it's a pretty good start to a new series, and I'm looking forward to the next installment.  The attraction between the h/h both emotionally and physically is strong and convincing, and to me, that's the most important part of a romance.

✽Digging into my RT14 thumbdrive backlog, I read Delicious Sinn, by Adrianna Dane. Short m/m erotica with some oh so angsty character development. I liked the backstory between the characters, and I really liked how Will went about seducing Sinn. I don't read a ton of m/m, but I liked that the voicing read quite masculine to me, for whatever my opinion on that is worth. I skimmed a little of the internal narrative (so much angst) but overall I'd recommend.

✽I have a couple of other books in progress, one regency and one paranormal, neither of which is working really well for me. I might take a break and re-read the 2nd Jacqueline Carey Kushiel book, or maybe Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. Someone tweeted about their re-read the other day and it planted that little tickle in my reading id.