Vacation Reading: Maui

Let’s start off with a pretty picture:

Sunset at Napili Bay

Hawaii has always been a place where I go to unplug, relax, and read ALL THE BOOKS, and this trip was no different.

I had grand ambitions. I packed five books, downloaded several audiobooks, and loaded up my e-reader with a bunch more e-books. Just in case – you never know what will happen. In true book nerd style, the book selection process before the trip was fraught. I’m an omnivorous reader when it comes to format, but on a vacation where I’d be doing a lot of reading outdoors and on sand, it was important to have book books. I wanted a mix of genres, high brow and low. After many trips to the bookstore and weeks of deliberating (I’m only joking a little here, sadly), I found my finalists.

From left to right:

• A Study in Silks by Emma Jane Holloway. Steampunky Sherlock Holmes fan fiction. What’s not to like?
• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. This has been on my tbr for ages. Fantasy highly recommended by a friend. Plus, there’s something sort of great about reading a big, fat mass-market paperback book on the beach. That might just be me.
• Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. To fill out the highbrow requirement, though, if I’m being honest, this was purchased and brought on vacation almost entirely because of this amazing pulp-inspired cover because I am a sucker.
• number9dream by David Mitchell.  Trying to work my way through the David Mitchell backlist.
• Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey. Picked up on a whim based on a review over at Smart Bitches Trashy Books. Fantasy + romance = potential win? Plus, see above regarding my weird fetish for reading 1,000+ page mass-market paperback books on the beach.

A solid group of contenders, right? Want to know what I read on vacation?

Smut.

From left to right:

• Covet by J.R. Ward. I was hoping to recapture some of the magic of reading the Black Dagger Brotherhood books. No such luck here thanks to the same things that have driven me away from the BDB books lately – too long, too many characters, too much plot.
• It Happened One Wedding by Julie James. A random book I’d downloaded forever ago. So much fun! Banter, romance, sexy sex! Felt like a breath of fresh air after the gloom and never-ending plot machinations of Covet.
• About that Night by Julie James. And I was off to the bookstore to find some more crack. Still fun!
• Something about You by Julie James. Just to mix things up, I tried this on audiobook. Good narrator. Very enjoyable listen while sitting in a lounge chair under a plumeria tree.

The best laid plans, huh? I did read about 500 pages of Kushiel’s Dart, but I’ll report back on that once I’m done.