Hello, everyone! It’s Ely from Earl Grey Books here again to share another post with you all. Today I’ll be telling you all about five of my favourite reads of 2021 so far. So without further ado, let’s just get into it.

The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare: I was extremely hesitant going into this book because it seemed like everyone in the romance community had read and loved Tessa Dare and I was worried it was going to be overhyped. Turns out I should’ve listened to Angel and everyone else who told me to read this because this was incredible. This is just such a sweet and fun book, as well as being sexy as hell. What more could you want in a historical romance? If you haven’t read any Tessa Dare yet, here’s yet another person telling you to do that.

Naked in Death by J.D Robb: 2021 has definitely been a year of me trying new genres and tropes and discovering that I actually like them. It turns out that J.D Robb is one of those new things—I won’t commit and say that I like this genre of futuristic romantic suspense. But I did really love this one. I’m genuinely shocked because I hated my first Nora Roberts book that I tried last year. But as J.D Robb I really enjoyed her writing and this story. This is, of course, is a huge series. I haven’t continued it yet but I’ll definitely be dedicating some time to it very soon.

A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh: I’ve thought for years now that Agatha Christie is where my enjoyment of crime fiction pretty much began and ended, but last year I tried Dorothy L. Sayers and enjoyed her writing. Because of that, I decided to test myself and pick up some Ngaio Marsh as well and instantly fell in love. A Man Lay Dead has one of my favourite tropes which is the whole murder game thing. People at a party decide to play basically a real-life game of Cluedo only someone is actually murdered. Shock horror! I thought this was just done really well and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it.

Angels’ Blood by Nalini Singh: Here’s another thing Angel has been screaming at me to read…kinda. I’ve been listening to her talk about the Psy-Changeling series by Nalini Singh for months. And so I decided to instead go out and read Singh’s other series so I could torture both of us just a little. Again, this is not my usual genre at all but I was completely in love with this by page 20. I often struggle with the writing in paranormal romances. But this is really well-written and just has this incredibly interesting world and set of characters that I couldn’t help but devour it. It’s made me really excited to get to the Psy-Changeling series as well now.

And that’s it from me today. I hope you’re all doing well and I’ll see you again next month!