On the joy of the Side quest read

Looking back on this past year, it is becoming abundantly clear to me that the most fun I have experienced while reading was during what we have dubbed our “side quest reads.” These are books that we have informally decided to read as a small group purely for the joy and intrigue of it. I wish I could say how these books get chosen—most often, it’s just a magical moment when someone suggests a book they’d like to read soon, and a pile of us respond with a level of enthusiasm that makes the choice feel immediate and obvious.

In September, our girl Jen threw out the idea of reading The Poison Daughter, a new standalone romantasy release from Sheila Masterson that was also featured as a Book of the Month pick and was blowing up on social media. The reaction from the crew was immediate—we were doing it. Many of us went into the book blind. Some chose to listen to the audiobook (highly, highly recommend, btw!), some did an immersive read, and some read with their eyeballs, but the result was the same—there were so many twists, turns, surprises, and steamy scenes that we were collectively shouting in the discussion thread.

Besides the overall level of mayhem and joy this book brought, what made it so special was that it appealed to so many of us in the group. Not everyone reads romantasy, or spice, or books with vampires, and yet there was enough common ground in this that the vast majority who participated rated the book and the experience five stars. That has NEVER happened to us before. Would this book have been excellent on its own? Yes. Was it triple the fun time because we experienced it together? Hell yeah.

This month’s side quest is a little different. We took a walk on the wild side and picked a sentient object romance about a woman who falls in love with her decorative skeleton just in time for Halloween. It appears that all of these buddy reads are really helping us to broaden our horizons and try new things together that we may not have experienced otherwise. Will this one be too strange for us? Have we flown too close to the sun? You’ll have to join us in Discord to find out.

Here’s to a happy Halloween, and many more experiences that bring us joy.

Love,

Amanda