A really nice meditation on loss, family, and the bittersweet nature of enduring beyond trauma. I couldn‘t help but rooting for Jane, Eve and Vera, who are all just women trying to be bigger than their gender, age, and circumstance.

This one has it all: hellhounds, squirrel people, a guy named Minty Fresh and more! I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a little gallows humor.

Oof. Whoever gave this one the green light, especially the weirdly giant font on the first page of each new chapter and the awkward AI art, ought to have a good long think about what they‘ve done.

This one‘s a light, fun read! Levine makes good use of both vampire and “woman in a romance novel” tropes without ever taking either too seriously.

This isn‘t the most riveting, page-turning, thriller of the lot, despite the Chloe Benjamin blurb on the cover. It is, however, a deep critique of society and how people are sometimes left to rot in those corners where wealthier, more fortunate, individuals choose not to look.

When you get the chance to read Peter S. Beagle‘s first book in ages before it‘s even released, how could you say no? This one is being marketed as “The Princess Bride with dragons,” and I think that‘s pretty spot on. Keep an eye out for it to appear in shops mid-May!

This one goes out to all the adults who were once kids obsessed with reading and who found salvation in books. I simply couldn‘t help but root for Lucy, and I especially loved how the final outcome was forecasted throughout by little references to the Clock Island series (the books within this book).

This is a really neat, quick, read with some deep themes! I especially loved the ending with its bittersweet, but ultimately hopeful, undertones.

Once again, I think being a “serious” high fantasy reader impacted my enjoyment of a widely enjoyed title. For me, this had a pretty formulaic throughline (3 tests, a riddle, etc.) and not enough real plot. I especially would‘ve liked less time spent on the front end and establisment of Tamlin and Feyre‘s relationship, and a less rushed approach to the “big bad” at the end of the book.

This was a fun take on the “prodical child” trope, and I particularly loved the reveal of exactly what beliefs Vesper did not share with her family and how Harrison incorporated appropriate symbolism without falling into cliché.

This is overall a really fun read! I do wish there had been explicit explanation of why eating the faerie food is just fine (since it not being without consequences is a common trope), but otherwise I had a great time reading this one.

This was very cute! I was nervous it might get awkward since it‘s a “friends-to-lovers” where one friend spends the entire book pregnant, but it never did. A great read for folks who loved the show “Gilmore Girls” and anything romance that doesn‘t get explicit.

The underlying ideas are super interesting, but the format and all the “extras” (that you can‘t really skip if you want the whole story) toward the back make for an ultimately tedious read. The “book within a book” framing is also executed somewhat clumsily, and I would have preferred just a “normal” novel overall.

4.85/5 stars (or planetoids, take your pick)! This is a neat lil‘ sci-fi standalone, and my main complaint is it would‘ve been well served by about 100 more pages dedicated to exploring the motivations of the original rebellion, the mechanics of the Wisdom/shadowspace, and just some little things like that. Lastly, I am madly in love with the clever use of bits from Wilfred Owen‘s Dulce Et Decorum Est.

I‘m only about 20 pages in, and holy heck Batman. Maybe it‘s because the title seems like a clear reference to Owen‘s “Dulce Et Decorum Est” (anyone else love antiwar poetry?) but I just know this one will be a wild ride somehow.

After having read both this one and “Everyone in This Room Will Someday be Dead,” I can safely say that Emily Austin‘s writing style bores me. The ideas lend themselves to interesting character studies, but the style and lack of depth don‘t let anything particularly insightful actually happen. It is nice to see a character with unilateral deafness (which my parent has) though, but I don‘t find the representation super realistic in this case.

While I do feel like Rebecca Ross uses the same 3 themes in all of her more recent works, this is a really nice book! The ending feels especially well-conceived, and that final “little flower” does a lot of heavy, emotional lifting. The duology is ultimately a bit reminiscent of “Lovely War” but still very much its own animal.

This is an easy read, and not without its moments, but the ending feels really rushed. The sort of weird nods to JonBenet also end up feeling largely pointless, and takes away from what could be a really interesting commentary on life in the rural Midwest.

As a long term reader of high fantasy I don‘t really get the Empyrean hype. But I do see how the books are easily digested by folks who don‘t read as much (or as seriously), so kudos to Yarros for that! On top of that, this 2nd offering is stronger than the 1st, with a more interesting overall plot.

And so it begins, my quest to review every book I read in 2024. This one‘s pretty cute, and funny, but ultimately middling for me. I would have loved a less neat ending, and perhaps a little more of Vivien‘s story to make it slightly less saccharine.

Potroast is my icon. An absolute unit. But seriously: this was so fun and cosy, with just a touch more action than “Legends and Lattes” but still retaining the feeling that everything will be alright in the end.

Adrienne Young delivers once more! She pulls in all of her neat tonal tricks familiar to readers of “Spells for Forgetting” in this one, while offering up a fresh spin on time travel. My only gripe, which is admittedly minor, was that we are never actually told how Esther got those darn seeds.

Did I love this? YES! Would I recommend this? YES! Am I planning on reading the 2nd one? NO! Why not?! Because I wasn‘t nearly as invested in anyone else as I was in Niamh and I find it silly to set up an intriguing threat against such an important character mere pages before nullifying it entirely.

An absolute 5-⭐️ read! The horror is so soft, yet so palpable, and Nina‘s path to truly become the Lady of Lute is a surprisingly well-executed feminist overture. Not to mention the commentary on morality and herd mentality woven throughout—everpresent, yet never overbearing.

Since I‘ve seen this misunderstanding more than a fair few times, I encourage all readers to repeat after me: “Divine Rivals is not historical fiction. Divine Rivals is NOT HISTORICAL FICTION. DIVINE RIVALS IS NOT HISTORICAL FICTION.” 😂😂

What a neat lil‘ first page in a—hopefully—spooky read

Eurgh, was this boring! It deserves so badly to be a less rushed, longer book, and for the author to just give into herself and let it be the supernatural romp she ever so clearly dreamt of writing.

Oh boy, what a fun lil‘ heartrending twist to sneak in at the end there, very sportsmanly to make me cry in the breakroom at work, Rebecca 😭😂

This is a truly beautiful work about being something to others even when you feel like you are nothing. Wonderfully melancholy, the setting perfectly supports the story. In any other circumstance, the disappearance (reapparance?!) of Hugo would have felt like lazy writing, but Seckel weaves something unfinished so beautifully into this soft, mournful tale of simple getting through the dark patches that it feels intentional.

Starting a book set in Scotland on the way to Irish Festival feels both so right and so wrong 😂

Just when I thought Rebecca Ross‘ books could not get any more stellar overall (seriously, folks, Elements of Cadence is such a must read!), I remember this amazing edging on the FL edition of “Divine Rivals.”

Just in case anyone wonders, “The Warden” is the book that has been living rent-free in my brain for hecking MONTHS as “that cool book I want with the purple forest cover” and now I FINALLY sleuthed my way to the title. TRIUMPH!…But seriously: does this kind of thing ever happen to others? Am I alone in my suffering?! 😂

This was pretty good! Not nearly as spooky as I expected, but with twists and turns throughout. The ending was sweet, but perhaps a little too neat for me. What does shine without a doubt, though, are the Southern Gothic elements of architectural horror and the lingering sense that wealth might just make people a touch nefarious.

I liked a lot of this, but boy-oh-boy was it obvious Yarros deals more in romance?! YES, YES IT FLIPPIN‘ WAS! From the sequel I want more dragons, less weird commentary on the taste of genitals—please and thanks. For fairness‘ sake: I read the ARC and the final edit may have less fluff…if so it also hopefully has more of the super interesting core conflict (not the romantic one) and political narrative.

That glorious moment when it‘s your turn to have the communal ARC 🎉

Look at me, finally reviewing a book I posted about getting 2 months ago! 😂 Overall, this was pretty entertaining and I would definitely recommend it to folks who loved “Iron Widow” and “A Magic Steeped in Poison.” That said, the pacing and worldbuilding were both a bit middling, and more consistent rules for the magic system would have been great.

What a wild read this was, with an unpredictable ending and loads of emotion! Be warned, though: if Leigh Bardugo says something has heartbreak, she‘s not lying.

If you loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer (like I still do to a near-embarrassing level) or Kendare Blake, then this is the book for you! Amazing new Scoobies, original characters making a reappearance, and just the right perfectly campy, quippy tone!

MacMillan gives “Spells for Forgetting” five big wheeks—which is the guinea way of saying this is a really neat book! It‘s quiet, mysterious, and handles generational trauma in a beautiful way.

This definitely had a slower pace than I was led to believe from the blurb, but overall it was really quite beautiful. Perfect for mythology lovers who want a more philosophical read.

What a perfect, goofy, little late spring read 💕 Fictional Bernie is fantastic, Crash has girlpower enough for 10, and the tone throughout is so fun!

What a fun read! This definitely tickled my nostalgia for the Inn of the Last Home scenes in Dragonlance, and is basically an extended love letter to the fireside moments of 80‘s and 90‘s high fantasy.

Being on the Illumicrate waitlist for absolute ages was well worth it for this beauty alone! Here‘s to hoping the story is as good as the appearance.

I‘ve got lots of thoughts, but here are the main ones:
1) The writing style ain‘t all that, but the storyline is neat enough to outweigh that shortfall 2) Okay, TV-show Daenerys 3) Zetian could be fleshed out in more ways than “Hates the system. Has real gross feet. Lives for vengeance.” Overall I give this a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️ though and would recommend it to lovers of big ol‘ bots and powerful gals!

Just had the inaugural read in my very own craft/reading room, and boy was the hard renovation work worth it!

This was a pretty satisfying, albeit somewhat “cookie-cutter” thriller! I did enjoy the twists until the very end, and the sweet symbolic finish.

This has everything I‘ve come to expect from good ol‘ Grady, executed to perfection! A rodent attack, some generational trauma, and a complex protatonist make this so, so fun and deliciously creepy.

“You have regained your honor…” may very well be the most emotional words in this entire thing, I must say.

This was great, although I was a bit disappointed it didn‘t have stronger supernatural overtones after all. Naomi is an interesting character, and the layered conclusions meant that what happened all those years ago actually did surprise me.