Hello, friend! Thank you for joining me on this virtual coffee date.
Good Ol’ Black Coffee (up first this time)
There are some really great sales on Thank You for Sharing right now!
UK/Commonwealth folks: the ebook is on sale for £0.99 wherever you want to buy it until January 8th! Scroll down on the linked page for buy links :)
North American folks: the paperback is on sale for ~25% off at most of the big stores! I have no clue how long this will last. I’d still always encourage instead buying from an indie (you can order signed copies from Third Place Books here) but I also know that with holiday shopping, budgets can be tight.
I will be ~officially~ announcing book 2 on social media in early January and revealing the cover shortly after. Of course, y’all will get a special sneak peek first as a thank you for being Katz Café subscribers. Hint: sapphic friends to lovers, road trip, dark humor, very sad sometimes lol.
Quick brag: Thank You for Sharing was listed as a best book of 2023 by New York Public Library. Between this, Library Journal naming TYFS debut of the month, and King County Library making me a 2024 Literary Lion, I’m considering buying myself a t-shirt that says LIBRARIANS LOVE ME.
Thank you to everyone who has reached out with kind words about TYFS - releasing a book into the world is an entirely surreal experience, both good and bad, but the readers with whom my work resonated make it all worthwhile.
Today’s Drink Special: 2024 Books I’ve Read & Loved!
The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson - an epistolary romance (one of my favorite premises 👀) between a grieving MLB player and his newly divorced heckler. I think Alicia and I have a lot of overlapping tastes and sensibilities-when I read her work, the overwhelming feeling I have is yes, exactly this!!!
Happy Medium by Sarah Adler - absolutely genius title for a book about a (formerly) fake medium who teams up with an actual ghost to save the grumpy owner of a goat farm from a familial curse. Adler’s voice is as sparkly and bright and funny and surprisingly tender as ever.
Love, Off the Record by Samantha Markum - a New Adult academic rivals to lovers with a major epistolary element between two grunts at The Ohio State University’s newspaper. The end of 2023 means I’ve officially been a Sam Markum stan for over a decade, and I can say with my whole chest that Three & Wyn are my all-time favorite Markum couple.
The Partner Plot by Kristina Forest - a second chance/fake marriage between a celebrity stylist and a high school teacher and basketball coach. I’ve been dying for Violet’s story since I read The Neighbor Favor earlier this year, and Forest absolutely delivers with two incredibly hot protagonists, and one of the best sick/care scenes I’ve read in ages. Can’t wait for Iris’s book; I know it’s going to wreck me.
Summertime Punchline by Betty Corrello - this one lives somewhere between second chance and enemies to lovers, between an aspiring comedian and single dad. You can check out my ~blurb~ over on IG but this book is SO funny, and if you have similar taste in men to me, you’ll be salivating over Eddie.
What Is Love? by Jen Comfort - a Jeopardy-inspired opposites attract bi4bi romance. I don’t really know what else to say - it’s a Jen Comfort book! That means it’s hilarious and sexy and all around excellent! You’ll be staring at the text thinking “how on earth did she come up with this?” and be immensely grateful for it! It’s just a given at this point!
There are three books I’ve been supremely lucky to have been given early access to but have not yet read: Finally Fitz by Marisa Kanter, Wild About You by Kaitlyn Hill, and If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens. I know I’ll be yelling about them on social media in the new year. I want to note that If I Stopped Haunting You is by an Indigenous author and about Indigenous characters—a group that has been woefully underrepresented by major publishers.
A Biscotti With Your Coffee
Music: I was in the top 0.01% of Bad Bunny Spotify listeners this year, which I think is a pretty incredible feat considering he was the second most streamed artist overall.
TV: I watched the final season of Starstruck on HBO Max and I have not been the same since. If you’ve seen this show too and would like to discuss, please comment on this post or DM me in the new year when I’m back on social media.
Mwah,
Rachel Runya Katz
1. Thank you for the shoutout. 2. That Bad Bunny accomplishment IS something to be proud of; you should put it on your business cards.
Your 2024 loved list and my 2024 most anticipated list are basically identical :-)