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KDD Highlights
Dec. 15th, 2025 04:30 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
smartbitches_feedThe Blighted Stars
RECOMMENDED: The Blighted Stars by Megan E. O’Keefe is $2.99 and a KDD! Elyse loved this scifi with romantic elements and gave it an A, but gave a warning:
The Blighted Stars is the first book in a series, so we don’t get a ton of resolution in this novel, romantic or otherwise. If you’re looking for a complete romantic arc, don’t start this book.
When a spy is stranded on a dead planet with her mortal enemy, she must first figure out how to survive before she can uncover the conspiracy that landed them both there in the first place.
She’s a revolutionary. Humanity is running out of options. Habitable planets are being destroyed as quickly as they’re found and Naira Sharp knows the reason why. The all-powerful Mercator family has been controlling the exploration of the universe for decades, and exploiting any materials they find along the way under the guise of helping humanity’s expansion. But Naira knows the truth, and she plans to bring the whole family down from the inside.
He’s the heir to the dynasty. Tarquin Mercator never wanted to run a galaxy-spanning business empire. He just wanted to study rocks and read books. But Tarquin’s father has tasked him with monitoring the mining of a new planet, and he doesn’t really have a choice in the matter.
Disguised as Tarquin’s new bodyguard, Naira plans to destroy his ship before it lands. But neither of them expects to end up stranded on a dead planet. To survive and keep her secret, Naira will have to join forces with the man she’s sworn to hate. And together they will uncover a plot that’s bigger than both of them.
August Lane
August Lane by Regina Black is $2.99 and a KDD! This is a standalone contemporary with a second chance romance and a backdrop of country music. It released over the summer.
For fans of Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter and The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, a Southern small-town romance about the visibility of Black women’s voices in country music, and “the best romance I’ve read all year.” (The New York Times).
Every Thursday night, former country music heartthrob Luke Randall has to sing “Another Love Song.” God, he hates that song. But performing his lone hit at an interstate motel lounge is the only regular money he still has. Following another lackluster performance at the rock bottom of his career, Luke receives the opportunity of his dreams, opening for his childhood idol—90’s era Black country music star, JoJo Lane, who’s being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. But the concert is in Arcadia, Arkansas, the small hometown he swore he’d never see again. Going back means facing a painful past of abuse and neglect. It also means facing JoJo’s daughter, August Lane—the woman who wrote the lyrics he’s always claimed as his own.
August also hates that song. But she hates Luke Randall even more. When he shows up ten years too late to apologize for his betrayal, she isn’t interested in making amends. Instead, she threatens to expose his lies unless he co-writes a new song with her and performs it at the concert, something she hopes will launch her out of her mother’s shadow and into a songwriting career of her own. Desperate to keep his secret, Luke agrees to put on the rogue performance, despite the risk of losing his shot at a new record deal.
When Luke’s guitar reunites with August’s soulful alto, neither can deny that the passionate bond they formed as teenagers is still there. As the concert nears, August will have to choose between an overdue public reckoning with the boy who betrayed her, or trusting the man he’s become to write a different love song.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin is $ 2.99 and a KDD! This is a fantasy novel with a bit of romance and a strong, fierce heroine who is MUCH loved by readers. This book was nominated for the Hugo, the Nebula, and won the Locus for Best First Novel.
Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with cousins she never knew she had.
As she fights for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother’s death and her family’s bloody history.
With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, Yeine will learn how perilous it can be when love and hate – and gods and mortals – are bound inseparably together.
Drop Dead Sisters
Drop Dead Sisters by Amelia Diane Coombs is $2.99 and the only non-KDD out of the bunch! I know we’ve mentioned this on the site, but I can’t remember in what capacity. Three estranged sisters reunite on a camping trip, only for the night to end in murder!
“Compulsively readable, Drop Dead Sisters is perfect for readers who love shows like Bad Sisters and Dead to Me. A mystery about three estranged sisters who accidentally kill someone? Yes, please.” —Mindy Kaling
Three sisters reunite on a family vacation and rekindle their relationship the only way they know how—by covering each other’s tracks in a real-life murder mystery not even they can figure out.
Remi Finch has spent the better part of her adult life avoiding family—especially her sisters. They just don’t click. Besides, her unconventional upbringing and major anxiety have convinced Remi that she can’t build a relationship with anyone. Period.
When her parents plan a family reunion camping trip to celebrate their anniversary, Remi’s willing to reconnect, if only because she doesn’t have a choice. But then a dead body turns up at their campsite, and their sisterly bonding kicks into high gear.
No one knows the whole story, but the Finch women are prepared to cover up the pieces before anyone tries to put them together. It’s a precautionary measure, probably unnecessary. Nobody else was there, so how could they have seen anything?
Between old grudges and new dynamics, a handsome park ranger, and a body that won’t stay hidden, Remi is about to learn that nothing strengthens family ties quite like crime.
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Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah!
Welcome back! It’s our first Whatcha Reading of the month, and that means only one more to go before 2026. Here’s what we’re reading:
We’re back with more Holiday Wishes! This week we’re talking with Rae A., Josephine, and Sneezy!
They are on sale now through early January, and you can buy one or both in a gift set! And they are going very fast! 
