Hello, Hungry Readers,

First, Romancing the Vote was able to raise over $250,000 for voting rights and they are still tallying things up, as some people add a little more to their donations. There’s often a few items that go for big bucks, but let me tell you as both a donor and a buyer, lots of little things add up.

I want to warn/alert you that I’m participating in the upcoming Romance Book Blast, so there will be one more newsletter in June, and then I will likely bug you only once in August as penance. That book will be Repeated Burn, which I will talk about then. If you were thinking of buying it, maybe wait a smidge.

I have news but since I haven’t talked about reading in what feels like forever, let’s do a very brief two terrific books. Bookshop links included.

Annalee Newitz’s Automatic Noodle is a lovely little story about robots who decide to reopen the restaurant their humans abandoned, in a world that isn’t that sure about letting robots make food.

Erin Entrada Kelly and Kwame Mbalia’s On Again Awkward Again is so good at capturing the middle school feeling of trying to work together with someone you also have a crush on and the whole feeling of your body making you tragically uncool as you attempt to talk.

Actually both books are about banding together for a project. Restaurant, school dance. Community building.

So, the thing I have been working on behind the scenes for some time has a title and a cover. Preorder/buy links soon.

It’s got a hockey player in a bit of a rut, and a multi-hyphenate brand consultant/playwright/director who meet when his agent brings him to get some career advice. Or should I say meet again, because they dated in college. Joel thinks the universe has brought him to her for a reason. Noelani thinks he’s an unnecessary distraction from achieving her life goals. How ever will this end?

Hope you are staying temperate. Happy reading!