I don’t know about you, but the news cycle has left me quite anxious. It’s affected my reading habits. Where once I might relish a moody sci-fi novel, or a gruesome murder mystery I now become reluctant to keep reading if a book becomes too sad, or the main character too unlikable. And so my taste has been favouring what I’m calling low stakes fiction. Sure there’s some conflict, but nothing too dire. There are bad guys, but they are not completely unredeemable and they are not the main characters.

As a case in point, I have been reading: A Comfortable Alliance by Catherine Kullmann and I’ve been enjoying it. It’s a regency romance where the MCs like and respect each other but are not in love when they marry. I’m assuming they will be in love by the end of the novel, but if not the world will not end. So far no one’s death has been at all suspicious, and the worst thing that has happened so far has been servants stealing.

No murders, no duels, no one forbidden to marry their true love. It’s all low stakes and very relaxing so far, and at 70% complete I don’t anticipate anything to dreadful happening. I’m thinking I might need to read more by Kullmann while the world burns – mostly because I can’t play violin.