Read as thou wilt . . .

Another month, and I don't want to say the funk continues, but . . .

I had a plan. I was going to pick up all those series I'd never finished in the hope that rediscovering old favorites would reinvigorate my love of reading. And it worked . . . sorta.

It began with Well Traveled by Jen DeLuca. It was fun returning to the world of the traveling renaissance fair and I really enjoyed her newest installment in the series, giving it 3.5 stars.

Then, over two decades after first publishing Kushiel's Dart Jacqueline Carey returned readers to the realm of Terre D'Ange with Cassiel's Servant. I reasoned that this technically fell into my self-imposed rule of reading books in a series this month. I raced to pick this one up, and I picked it up over and over again. Don't get me wrong. I loved seeing the story from Joscelin's point of view. I had the same problem with this book as I do with watching the first season of Outlander - I know horrible things are in store for the characters, and I try to put it off as long as possible in order to ensure I'm in a good mindset to endure the torture right alongside them. It's why it took me most of the month to read (much to the annoyance of my Book Bestie who was eagerly awaiting someone to talk about it with.)

Once I finished Cassiel, I decided to continue with Tessa Dare's Girl Meets Duke series. Book one was still fairly fresh in my mind, and while I know it is the one that gets the rave reviews, I enjoyed book two - The Governess Game even more.

By the last day of the month, I had resigned myself to the fact that it would be yet another three books read month. I perused both my library checkouts and my Kindle unlimited borrows, but nothing really jumped out at me. I began reading blurbs. Coulda by Pepper North had a hot dude on the cover, but the blurb was a real turn-off. Daddy Dom? What the hell had I been thinking when I borrowed that one? Still, the first few lines captured my attention and I began reading it while waiting for the kid to get ready for school. An hour later the kid was gone and I was already thirty percent into the story. Fast forward to eleven o'clock that night and I was done with the book. While I enjoyed the characters and the dynamic between the five friends, I can honestly say the Daddy Dom kink is not for me. That's not to say I won't eventually read the other two books in the series.

This brings me to the title of this blog. One of the codes in Jacqueline Carey's Terre D'Ange is 'Love as thou wilt.' There is no shame in your choice of partner. A new addition to my list of (mostly failed at this point) reading resolutions for the year is 'read as thou wilt.'

As I was reading the Pepper North book yesterday, a little voice in the back of my mind kept piping up to ask 'Are you really going to broadcast that this is the kind of thing you read?' The answer is obviously 'yes.' That's exactly what I mean by 'read as thou wilt.' I will not be ashamed of my choice of literature. After all, so far this year I've read some gay erotica and reverse harems. What's a little Daddy Dom on top of that? So what if it segues into motorcycle club/mafia/dark romance? I will not be ashamed.

Likewise, I will not pressure myself if I only read one book in the month of September. My Storygraph says I'm still on target to reach my 100-book goal for the year. But what if I don't? It's a self-imposed goal. The world will not end if I don't complete it. My focus for the Ber-months is to enjoy what I read, not push myself to read more.

Wish me luck!

C.J.