Jen Williams' The Poison Song
The conclusion to the Winnowing Flame trilogy manages to wrap up most of the remaining storylines in a satisfying way. Some parts are surprising and some are bittersweet. It’s the kind of story where you’re like “if only THIS had happened, then...!” But of course it happened the way it did and can’t be changed. Interesting stuff with gods/religion/powers etc, and some cute couples and animals to root for. I like books like that. A/A-.
Monday, June 29, 2020
Sunday, June 28, 2020
2020 book 128
Jen Williams' The Bitter Twins
I can’t say much about this second book without spoiling the first one, so I’ll just mention that this is weird and fun and heartbreaking in about equal measures. There is a fair amount of cruelty and a lot of this is intense; also, people keep trying to kidnap animals which I personally found very aggravating. (There are great animals here.) There's no sexual violence of any kind but there is other violence; this is not really gentle fantasy by any means. My favorite couple is super cute here though! I have no idea how this story is gonna wrap up so you had better believe I am diving into the third one. A/A-.
I can’t say much about this second book without spoiling the first one, so I’ll just mention that this is weird and fun and heartbreaking in about equal measures. There is a fair amount of cruelty and a lot of this is intense; also, people keep trying to kidnap animals which I personally found very aggravating. (There are great animals here.) There's no sexual violence of any kind but there is other violence; this is not really gentle fantasy by any means. My favorite couple is super cute here though! I have no idea how this story is gonna wrap up so you had better believe I am diving into the third one. A/A-.
Friday, June 26, 2020
2020 book 127
Jen Williams' The Ninth Rain
Ah, the delight of sinking into the first book of an epic fantasy series. Great world building here, all sorts of witches, and a weird religion that imprisons and uses the witches, and dead tree gods, and scholars, and another kind of people that sometimes drink human blood, and there’s of course a fair amount of tension, and every few hundred years some worm people invade their land. There is a minor amount of romance that I imagine will build in later books (so far 2/3 relationships are queer) that I found enjoyable. I found all of this enjoyable! This plot description probably sounds weird but it’s great and I loved this, totally engrossing and cool! A/A-.
Ah, the delight of sinking into the first book of an epic fantasy series. Great world building here, all sorts of witches, and a weird religion that imprisons and uses the witches, and dead tree gods, and scholars, and another kind of people that sometimes drink human blood, and there’s of course a fair amount of tension, and every few hundred years some worm people invade their land. There is a minor amount of romance that I imagine will build in later books (so far 2/3 relationships are queer) that I found enjoyable. I found all of this enjoyable! This plot description probably sounds weird but it’s great and I loved this, totally engrossing and cool! A/A-.
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
2020 book 126
Kai Ashante Wilson's A Taste of Honey
So this turns out not to be a sequel, though it is set in the same world of gods and humans and classism and magic. Really interesting society here, where only the women are educated (and in unusual stuff), and I was invested in the (brief) romance between the main character and his lover. I did think the ending was kind of a cop out, but liked it anyway? This was sweeter and more melancholy than its predecessor. A-.
So this turns out not to be a sequel, though it is set in the same world of gods and humans and classism and magic. Really interesting society here, where only the women are educated (and in unusual stuff), and I was invested in the (brief) romance between the main character and his lover. I did think the ending was kind of a cop out, but liked it anyway? This was sweeter and more melancholy than its predecessor. A-.
2020 book 125
Kai Ashante Wilson's The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps
I’m not even sure where to start with this one, because it’s weird and visceral and has like a million layers, and there’s a love story and an adventure story, and the end is a freaking gut punch. It’s beautifully written, which means the gross parts are extra hard to read, so I’ll give it an A- before immediately reading the sequel.
I’m not even sure where to start with this one, because it’s weird and visceral and has like a million layers, and there’s a love story and an adventure story, and the end is a freaking gut punch. It’s beautifully written, which means the gross parts are extra hard to read, so I’ll give it an A- before immediately reading the sequel.
Sunday, June 21, 2020
2020 book 124
Julia Quinn's The Duke and I
I wanted to read this bc I’ve read some of Quinn's other books and liked them well enough, and this series will at some point be a Netflix show with a cast I like. It’s a fairly run of the mill historical romance. SHE . . . has seven siblings and no one wants to marry her bc everyone sees her as a friend! HE . . . is a Duke with daddy issues and a past as a stuttering child! Of course a fake courtship will solve various problems for both of them, and of course it will turn real. This has some things I don’t like: cheesiness, insta-lust, growling hero tormented by feelings and occasionally manhandling the heroine, epilogues where happy endings inevitably involve multiple children. It has some things I do like: a cheerful heroine, a boisterous large family, a sense of humor. SADLY this book has a second epilogue that spoiled me as to which other minor characters will get together in future books, which is pretty uncool, bc they were actually the only two minor characters I was interested in! Anyway, B I guess.
I wanted to read this bc I’ve read some of Quinn's other books and liked them well enough, and this series will at some point be a Netflix show with a cast I like. It’s a fairly run of the mill historical romance. SHE . . . has seven siblings and no one wants to marry her bc everyone sees her as a friend! HE . . . is a Duke with daddy issues and a past as a stuttering child! Of course a fake courtship will solve various problems for both of them, and of course it will turn real. This has some things I don’t like: cheesiness, insta-lust, growling hero tormented by feelings and occasionally manhandling the heroine, epilogues where happy endings inevitably involve multiple children. It has some things I do like: a cheerful heroine, a boisterous large family, a sense of humor. SADLY this book has a second epilogue that spoiled me as to which other minor characters will get together in future books, which is pretty uncool, bc they were actually the only two minor characters I was interested in! Anyway, B I guess.
Thursday, June 18, 2020
2020 book 123
Alexandra Rowland's A Choir of Lies
The sequel to A Conspiracy of Truths focuses on the apprentice from that book, now out on his own, writing down his recent past, with frequent interjections from an angry and exasperated reader appearing in the form of footnotes. I ended up liking this a lot, though like its predecessor it was a bit slow, but that interplay of narrative voices was really the star here. That, I loved. A-.
The sequel to A Conspiracy of Truths focuses on the apprentice from that book, now out on his own, writing down his recent past, with frequent interjections from an angry and exasperated reader appearing in the form of footnotes. I ended up liking this a lot, though like its predecessor it was a bit slow, but that interplay of narrative voices was really the star here. That, I loved. A-.
Sunday, June 14, 2020
2020 book 122
Nnedi Okorafor's Binti
This sci-fi trilogy focuses on a young woman from earth, who's been accepted to an elite college—but her people never leave their home. So she runs away to take a spaceship to school . . . at least until the ship in invaded by hostile aliens. This an excellent start to a series—great characters and world-building—though I wanted more for sure. At least there are two more volumes! A-.
This sci-fi trilogy focuses on a young woman from earth, who's been accepted to an elite college—but her people never leave their home. So she runs away to take a spaceship to school . . . at least until the ship in invaded by hostile aliens. This an excellent start to a series—great characters and world-building—though I wanted more for sure. At least there are two more volumes! A-.
Saturday, June 13, 2020
2020 book 121
Lois McMaster Bujold's The Physicians of Vilnoc
Hey, it’s a new Penric and Desdemona book. In this one, our sorcerer and demon are called to deal with a plague at an army base. Not much else happens really, but I always enjoy spending time with these characters, and an interesting new sorcerer is introduced. B+.
Hey, it’s a new Penric and Desdemona book. In this one, our sorcerer and demon are called to deal with a plague at an army base. Not much else happens really, but I always enjoy spending time with these characters, and an interesting new sorcerer is introduced. B+.
Thursday, June 11, 2020
2020 book 120
Jasmine Guillory’s Party of Two
I think this is my favorite Jasmine Guillory book yet, because it doesn’t have any dumb refusals to discuss feeeeeelings, just legit issues that need to be worked through. It centers on a (Black)lawyer, moving to LA to start her own firm (she's the sister of Alexa from the previous books), who meets a cute (white) guy at a hotel bar . . . who also happens to be a hotshot young Senator. I liked both of these characters a lot, and found their struggles (separately and together) to be pretty compelling. I did wish the friend characters were more fleshed out, instead of just being sounding board stand-ins, but on the whole I liked this a lot. A/A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on June 23rd.
I think this is my favorite Jasmine Guillory book yet, because it doesn’t have any dumb refusals to discuss feeeeeelings, just legit issues that need to be worked through. It centers on a (Black)lawyer, moving to LA to start her own firm (she's the sister of Alexa from the previous books), who meets a cute (white) guy at a hotel bar . . . who also happens to be a hotshot young Senator. I liked both of these characters a lot, and found their struggles (separately and together) to be pretty compelling. I did wish the friend characters were more fleshed out, instead of just being sounding board stand-ins, but on the whole I liked this a lot. A/A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on June 23rd.
Tuesday, June 09, 2020
2020 book 119
Carrie Vaughn's The Ghosts of Sherwood
I generally like Vaughn’s works, so was excited to check out her latest, a novella about the children of Robin Hood and Maid Marian getting kidnapped by political rivals. And I did /like/ it, I just wished there was more to it! It’s barely over a hundred pages and feels shorter. The children (well, the daughters) are really interesting, and I would have liked to have seen more of them, or more of the court politics, or whatever. I know a sequel is forthcoming but this still would have benefited from being fleshed out a bit more. But I /did/ really enjoy the daughters and will be reading the sequel for sure. B+.
I generally like Vaughn’s works, so was excited to check out her latest, a novella about the children of Robin Hood and Maid Marian getting kidnapped by political rivals. And I did /like/ it, I just wished there was more to it! It’s barely over a hundred pages and feels shorter. The children (well, the daughters) are really interesting, and I would have liked to have seen more of them, or more of the court politics, or whatever. I know a sequel is forthcoming but this still would have benefited from being fleshed out a bit more. But I /did/ really enjoy the daughters and will be reading the sequel for sure. B+.
Monday, June 08, 2020
2020 book 118
Jo Walton's Lifelode
I wanted to read this because I generally like Walton's novels, it was described as a domestic kind of fantasy (which is what I want to read these days), and it finally became available as an ebook. And it is fairly domestic, or at least the main character is a woman who keeps house at the manor (though she is part of a polycule with its lord), and who also has the power to see things from other times. And things are domestic enough, at least until an ancestor comes home, fleeing an angry goddess. Look, the world and magic are too complicated to explain in a few sentences, but I thought they both worked really well, and I liked the sort of circular storytelling. I did not entirely love the way things wrapped up, though. Definitely left me a bit unsatisfied. B+.
I wanted to read this because I generally like Walton's novels, it was described as a domestic kind of fantasy (which is what I want to read these days), and it finally became available as an ebook. And it is fairly domestic, or at least the main character is a woman who keeps house at the manor (though she is part of a polycule with its lord), and who also has the power to see things from other times. And things are domestic enough, at least until an ancestor comes home, fleeing an angry goddess. Look, the world and magic are too complicated to explain in a few sentences, but I thought they both worked really well, and I liked the sort of circular storytelling. I did not entirely love the way things wrapped up, though. Definitely left me a bit unsatisfied. B+.
Sunday, June 07, 2020
2020 book 117
Emily Henry's Beach Read
I think I saw Emma Straub recommend this and immediately put it on hold at the library. It’s a contemporary romance about a romance author with writer's block (due to the emergence of various family secrets that have shaken her faith in LOVE), who moves to a beach house in Michigan where her next door neighbor is none other than her hot creative writing class rival from college, now a successful author of literary fiction. So of course they end up having a bet where she will write a “serious” novel and he will write something with a happy ending, and they will spend their weekends researching their genres together. It’s a cute premise and the author makes it mostly work. I really liked the protagonist, but the love interest's childhood trauma is kind of glossed over, and the very end didn’t work for me. But this was a fun read for sure. B+.
I think I saw Emma Straub recommend this and immediately put it on hold at the library. It’s a contemporary romance about a romance author with writer's block (due to the emergence of various family secrets that have shaken her faith in LOVE), who moves to a beach house in Michigan where her next door neighbor is none other than her hot creative writing class rival from college, now a successful author of literary fiction. So of course they end up having a bet where she will write a “serious” novel and he will write something with a happy ending, and they will spend their weekends researching their genres together. It’s a cute premise and the author makes it mostly work. I really liked the protagonist, but the love interest's childhood trauma is kind of glossed over, and the very end didn’t work for me. But this was a fun read for sure. B+.
Saturday, June 06, 2020
2020 book 116
Megan McCafferty's The Mall
McCafferty (author of the Jessica Darling books) is back with her first YA novel in a while. It’s the typical story of a high achieving nerdy girl, off to Barnard in the fall, whose life plan is shattered when she discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her. Of course she ends up tossed into a summer job working with her childhood best friend (who she looks down on for being less achieving, why are these nerdy girls always such snobs?). What (slightly) sets this apart is the setting—a mall in 1991–not to mention a mysterious goth girl and a cabbage patch themed treasure hunt. This was entertaining enough that I read it in one sitting, even though it felt pretty familiar. Plus, the cover is a neon joy.
McCafferty (author of the Jessica Darling books) is back with her first YA novel in a while. It’s the typical story of a high achieving nerdy girl, off to Barnard in the fall, whose life plan is shattered when she discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her. Of course she ends up tossed into a summer job working with her childhood best friend (who she looks down on for being less achieving, why are these nerdy girls always such snobs?). What (slightly) sets this apart is the setting—a mall in 1991–not to mention a mysterious goth girl and a cabbage patch themed treasure hunt. This was entertaining enough that I read it in one sitting, even though it felt pretty familiar. Plus, the cover is a neon joy.
So it wasn’t the most groundbreaking book, it was still good early 90s escapism. A-/B+.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday.
Friday, June 05, 2020
2020 book 115
Victoria Goddard’s Blackcurrant Fool
I’m very tired (and also proud of the quip about literary analysis) so let me link to my initial review of this, because I think all those sentiments still stand. I have really enjoyed rereading all of these (and reading them together with Hands of the Emperor and Til Human Voices gives a lot of interesting context) and can’t think of anything else that would have been so satisfying to read right now. I love stories about friendships and loyalty and love defying the odds.
I’m very tired (and also proud of the quip about literary analysis) so let me link to my initial review of this, because I think all those sentiments still stand. I have really enjoyed rereading all of these (and reading them together with Hands of the Emperor and Til Human Voices gives a lot of interesting context) and can’t think of anything else that would have been so satisfying to read right now. I love stories about friendships and loyalty and love defying the odds.
Thursday, June 04, 2020
2020 book 114
Victoria Goddard’s Whiskeyjack
The third Greenwing and Dart book has new and old mysteries to unravel, not to mention smugglers, bootleggers, more magic, puzzles, poems, curses, and Scholars. So much to love in this series! Why doesn’t Victoria Goddard have like eight new novels for me to read right now.
The third Greenwing and Dart book has new and old mysteries to unravel, not to mention smugglers, bootleggers, more magic, puzzles, poems, curses, and Scholars. So much to love in this series! Why doesn’t Victoria Goddard have like eight new novels for me to read right now.
Wednesday, June 03, 2020
2010 book 113
Victoria Goddard’s Bee Sting Cake
In the second book in this series, there are more friends, dragon riddles, curses to be broken, magic, a harvest fair, a cake competition, and a 3 mile race. What’s not to love?
In the second book in this series, there are more friends, dragon riddles, curses to be broken, magic, a harvest fair, a cake competition, and a 3 mile race. What’s not to love?
Tuesday, June 02, 2020
2020 book 112
Victoria Goddard’s Stargazy Pie
Still just rereading favorite fantasy books about men and their feelings, mysterious women, secret cults, and a bookstore owner who is basically Miss Marple. Interesting to see Goddard laying the groundwork here for stuff that happens in the fourth book. Anyway, I love these characters and their shenanigans.
Still just rereading favorite fantasy books about men and their feelings, mysterious women, secret cults, and a bookstore owner who is basically Miss Marple. Interesting to see Goddard laying the groundwork here for stuff that happens in the fourth book. Anyway, I love these characters and their shenanigans.