2018 book 150

Robin Stevens' Mistletoe and Murder
In the fifth Wells and Wong mystery, the girls are visiting Cambridge at Christmas—and trying to prove their Detective Society is better than that of a pair of BOY detectives. But when there is a MURDER, will they all have to team up to solve the case??? As usual, the plotting is spot on, and Daisy and Hazel and their friendship are all adorable and wonderful. LOVE IT.

2018 book 149

Robin Stevens' Jolly Foul Play
If having a series of middle grade mysteries be my comfort reading is wrong, I don’t want to be right! In this fourth volume, the girls' school is torn apart when their cruel Head Girl is murdered—and the suspects are the prefects. Plus, Daisy and Hazel's friendship is at risk! How can they solve the case when they aren’t speaking to one another?? Such good character work and plotting here, as usual.

2018 book 148

Robin Stevens' First Class Murder
The third Wells and Won mystery is a loving homage to Murder on the Orient Express, as Daisy and Hazel are on said train with Hazel's father on a tour of Europe when a murder takes place! He's forbidden them from detective work, but with a bunch of VERY amateur detectives on board, how can they resist doing it right? Another funny and very clever mystery with characters that keep being awesome.

2018 book 147

Robin Stevens' Arsenic for Tea
The second book in Stevens' delightful historical mystery series finds schoolgirls Hazel and Daisy at Daisy's estate to celebrate her birthday—but one of the houseguests is behaving very suspiciously. And then there is a MURDER! And most of the suspects are Daisy's relatives! Anyway, another satisfying, funny, and well plotted mystery with a great friendship at its center. I love these books.

2018 book 146

Robin Stevens' Murder Most Unladylike 
The latest book in this series comes out soon, so I decided to reread them all! Anyway itmis getting near to SPOOKY MYSTERY SEASON and this series is a fun version of same. This first one introduces us to our Detective Society, Daisy Wells and narrator Hazel Wong, students at an elite British boarding school in the 1930s, and what happens when Hazel stumbles onto the body of their science teacher. I Love these characters and Stevens does a great job showing Hazel dealing with clueless racists. It’s also a solid and well plotted mystery. YAY BOOKS.

2018 book 145

Kitty Zeldis' Not Our Kind
It's the late 1940s, and a young Jewish woman is on her way to a job interview at a school--for a job she really needs--when she's involved in a car accident. The society woman in the other car feels bad about it, and invites her home for lunch, and decides to hire the young woman to tutor her daughter, who is recovering from polio.  I appreciated (and was of course infuriated by) the depiction of sort of high-class anti-Semitism (as the title suggests) and liked the characterization here. Sometimes the dialogue felt a little wooden, especially toward the end, but this was in general a satisfying read. B+.

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Content warning for a scene of attempted rape.

2018 book 144

Tasha Suri's Empire of Sand
So this is an interesting and engaging fantasy novel sort of inspired by the Mughal Empire of India, centered on a woman who is half magic on her mom's side (I really don’t feel like explaining the world building and magical system here, so just go with it), and what happens when the creepy religious leader of their empire finds out about her. I liked the central relationship here a lot, as well as all the relationships between various women characters, but be warned that the middle section of this is somewhat grim. This wraps up on a satisfying way, but is apparently the first in a series, and I am curious as to where it will go next. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in November.

2018 book 143

Mary H.K. Choi's Emergency Contact
Rereading this for book club, and it is just as cute and charming and captivating as last time I read it! I mean, not to make it sound TOO fluffy, bc the characters have legit issues. It centers on a college freshman at UT Austin who wants to be a sci fi writer, and the coffee shop dude/wannabe filmmaker she starts texting after helping him with an emergency. It’s just really great and honest about relationships and friendships and mental health issues. I can’t wait to read whatever Choi writes next.

2018 book 142

Robert Galbraith's Lethal White
Insert usual spiel here about the author being JK Rowling. Anyway, all I remembered from the previous book in this series is how furious the very end made me. This one picks up right where that one left off, which is fine, but the character drama seems like it’s taking precedence over the whole mystery part of the story—and the mystery has a bit of a slow start in general. Plus having to read about the crappy relationship is just infuriating. “Leave him, girl! You’d be better off alone! You don’t have to leave a guy for another guy, you can just LEAVE! DON'T STAY WITH SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T SUPPORT YOU!!!” was my internal monologue on at least twelve different scenes. (I read a lot of this book on Yom Kippur, when admittedly I am extra cranky. But my point stands.) Anyway, eventually the mystery gets going, with blackmail, politics, and a possible cold case all in the mix, and the back half moves more quickly. I liked how this one wrapped up, even if one character does do something implausibly stupid. I don’t know enough about British politics and classism to say if that aspect was accurate or not, but I enjoyed this. A-.

2018 book 141

Natasha Solomons' The House of Gold
Solomons' latest novel is another engrossing historical story, this time centering on an influential European-Jewish family of bakers (loosely inspired by the Rothschilds), primarily through the lens of one of the Austrian daughters, who is being married off to one of her unknown British cousins. The story begins in 1911 and draws to a close toward the end of WWI, which was a bit disappointing as this was billed as a “sweeping family saga,” in which case I wanted more than seven years of story. I did find the story of her marriage (and garden) compelling, as well as her relationships with her brother and mother, but I just wanted a little bit more here. Maybe because I enjoyed reading this so much and wanted the story to keep going? Or maybe because some parts, particularly the subplot with the orphaned Jewish boy, don't come to any conclusion. Either way, the end was a trifle unsatisfying to me. Still, another solid one from Solomons—I enjoy her books a lot. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in October.

2018 book 140

Kirsten Miller's Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City
I think being holed up at home during a hurricane is the perfect time to reread a great adventure story about a band of girls with unusual talents exploring the underground tunnels of NYC—and maybe solving some mysteries along the way. This is the first of a series of three books, though I always hope Miller will find time for a couple more (she is currently busy co-writing a bunch of books with actor Jason Segal). A/A-.

2018 book 139

Vic James' Bright Ruin
The final book in James' Dark Gifts trilogy—set in an alternate version of England ruled by elite people with magical powers—is more of the fun same. James brings all the various threads together here—politics, revolution, historical research, family drama, etc—and it all works out in a more or less satisfying way. I was delighted by one romance here, felt some characters were underserved, but in general liked this a lot. If you want a slightly dark but enthralling series (with a little bit of humor), this is definitely one to check out. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in October.

2018 book 138

Kate Milford's Bluecrowne
I think, with this latest book, Milford has managed to smush together something from all of her previous books! It centers on the first residents of Greenglass House, and is billed as a Greenglass House story, but the characters are from her book The Left Handed Fate, among others. Well done, Ms Milford. Anyway, 12 year old Lucy finds herself off a ship for the first time in her life and settling into Greenglass House with her stepmother and little brother—at least until some mysterious men come for him and his talents. Lots of adventure, time travel, family, fireworks, and magic, though this felt a little darker than some of its predecessors. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in October.

2018 book 137

Kendare Blake's Two Dark Reigns
The latest in Blake's Three Dark Crowns series, the third of I believe a planned four, is more of the same--magic and politics and friends and romance and sisters and rivals and cliffhangers galore. I do feel like the rebellion aspects needed a bit more buildup, and this one's ending isn’t as HOLY WHAT as the previous two, but I definitely still want to see how this all comes together. B+.

2018 book 136

D.E. Stevenson's Anna and Her Daughters
Stevenson wrote pleasant British books where everything works out in the end, and sometimes that’s what I’m in the mood for! This one is narrated by the youngest of the titular daughters, and details what happens after her father dies and it turns out they have very little money—so the family decamps from London to their mother's small hometown in Scotland. The youngest had hopes of attending Oxford, but ends up working as an assistant to a local writer, while her older sisters fall for the same guy (who, of course, she also likes). I did wonder how this would work out in the end, but it mostly did (with perhaps a little bit of moralizing). I especially liked the relationship between the mother and the narrator. Side note, some scenes are set in Africa and the characters express racist/colonial views. So not my favorite of Stevenson's works, but entertaining enough. B.

2018 book 135

Lauren Oliver's Broken Things
Ok, I loved this book, except for one minor thing that made me FURIOUS, which I will get to in a moment. Now here is the usual stuff: I think Oliver is a great author and this has been getting a ton of really interesting buzz, so I was super looking forward to it. And it is soooo up my alley—it’s about two middle school girls who were accused of the murder of their best friend, because it was done in a ritualistic manner that was straight out of the fan fic they wrote for an obscure portal fantasy novel. But there was really no evidence against them, so now it’s five years later and they’re total outcasts in their town, and one of them thinks she’s found a clue to the real murderer. So they get together with a motley assortment of friends and love interests to see if they can figure this thing out. And it is GREAT.

Now here is what made me mad—one of said friends is a teen plus size Instagram model, which is awesome. But Oliver says she is 5'4' and 180 pounds, which is . . . not that large? And both she and her best friend talk about how fat she is, in a negative way, not in a reclaiming the word way. Like, maybe the numbers didn’t need to be specific here? Don’t girls have enough issues without seeing a fairly normal number and then characters saying the girl is FAT, has pre-diabetes, etc.? So judgy!!

Anyway, that was a minor thing, and I really liked the rest of this. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on October 2nd.
Content warning for graphic violence to an animal.

2018 book 134

Ashley Weaver's An Act of Villainy
The latest Amory Ames mystery finds Amory and her husband investigating a series of threatening letters directed at the star of a new play—who happens to be having an affair with her director. I like these characters a lot, but this mystery didn’t work for me. It’s one of those where they all just have a lot of conversations until the solution is revealed. I did guess one major portion of it, but then the end strained credulity so much that I probably would have thrown the book across the room had I not been reading on my Kindle. I will probably give this series another chance but this one did not work for me. B/B-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday.