2021 book 138

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Hallowed Hunt

Now I know why I never bothered reading this before: it’s not as good as the first two in this series. It’s set elsewhere, and the only familiar characters are the gods. Now I did like a lot about this—I’m always here for the Temple divines and all the holy/magic stuff, and I liked the protagonist and his love interest as well. But on the whole this is just a darker, grimmer, sadder book. It wraps up in a satisfying way but it’s not one I think I’ll reread. B/B+.

2021 book 137

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s Paladin of Souls

The second book in the Chalion series focuses on one of the secondary characters from the previous book—the mother of the princess, who everyone thought was mad because of the curse they were all under. Now a few years have passed, and she just needs a break from everyone and decides to go on a pilgrimage. But if you’re on a pilgrimage, the gods might decide you can help them out…. GREAT characters, lots of good magic and mysticism, a teeny bit of romance, a little more humor, a demonic horse…. I want more books exactly like this! A/A-.

2021 book 136

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion

I’m still on my Bujold kick, and since I've never read the third book in this series, decided to start at the beginning. My recollections of this were vague, except that it had a lot of business with the gods (the same ones in the Penric and Desdemona books) and was satisfying. And both those things were true! Bujold is great at stories with political machinations, kicky heroines, weary dudes, wry saints, and a little bit of romance. Parts of this are a little unpleasant along the way (there are some rape threats, plus the titular curse), but the end just makes everything awesome. A-.

2021 book 135

 Doris Egan's Guilt-Edged Ivory

In the final volume of the Ivory series, our protagonists are married, dealing with the pressure to have kids, and also solving a murder mystery! The mystery itself is pretty satisfying; I guessed some but not all of it. But of course once again the plot isn’t even really the point! This whole series is somehow a sci fi magical stream of consciousness slice of life story! I wish there was more because I just enjoyed these characters and their relationships and the narrative voice so much. A/A-.

2021 book 134

 Doris Egan's Two-Bit Heroes

In the second volume of the Ivory trilogy, our protagonist and her boyfriend are contemplating marriage and heading out on a routine fact-finding mission, except then they're immediately kidnapped by a band of outlaws. I love the narrative voice--she's a scholar of folk tales and has a sense of humor as she ruminates on their current problems. Again, great characters here, just really interesting and fun. A-.

2021 book 133

 Doris Egan's The Gate of Ivory

So Egan wrote this SFF trilogy in the 90s before pivoting to life as a tv writer/producer, which honestly I find kind of a bummer because I liked this first volume a lot! It’s a fun mix of sci fi and fantasy, set on a planet where there’s magic (but no one knows why). Our heroine is a student who’s been stranded there after being robbed, whose recruited for a job by a prominent and mysterious sorcerer. Soon attempts have been made on her life, she’s hanging with his family and learning life lessons, and interesting adventure ensue. But this wasn’t really action packed, it’s more about her adapting to a new way of life, and figuring out a way forward when things get tough. Really great characters (and the romance is kind of on the backburner but I was here for it) and I’m psyched to see what they do next. A-.

2021 book 132

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Spirit Ring

This is a standalone fantasy novel from Bujold, not one of her better known works, but still entertaining and moving. Set in a fantasy version of Renaissance Italy, it centers on the biracial teenage daughter of a master artisan-slash-mage, who longs to follow in his footsteps, but is beset by racism and sexism! And also the story of her love interest (the romance is not the main thing here, but I was here for it), who is supposed to be apprenticed to her father…. Except then his patron Duke is assassinated, an enemy is taking over the town, and her father is murdered. Oh yeah, and the bad guys are also evil sorcerers! (Really interesting magic/political stuff here, as the local Catholic Church is in charge of non-evil sorcerers.) So this wasn’t the best Bujold book, but definitely still worth a read. A-/B+.

2021 book 131

 Zen Cho's Black Water Sister

I’ve really enjoyed all the other stuff I’ve read by Cho, but this one didn’t one hundred percent work for me. It’s about a recent Harvard grad who moves to Malaysia with her parents (who are from there) and realizes she’s being haunted by her recently deceased grandmother, who is determined to protect a temple from corrupt developers. Only maybe there’s more going on? I did like all the supernatural stuff with the gods and their mediums, and I loved the family dynamics, but the plot was kind of … not there? So parts of this were just reallllllyyyy sloooooow. It felt really repetitive. And the whole secret girlfriend thing was way underdeveloped. I will still read whatever Cho writes next, this just wasn’t my favorite. B/B+.

2021 book 130

 India Holton's The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

Do you want to read a fluffy, funny, and mildly silly historical romance? Shall I sweeten the pot and tell you it’s set in a fantasy version of Victorian England populated by pirates who fly around in houses? And that the titular society is made up of genteel middle-aged ladies who rule the skies and frequently set assassins on one another? And the protagonist, the niece and companion of one of said society members,  just wants to read a book, dammit! And her love interest is working for about twelve different bosses and has as many aliases (he’s very likable, and I was rooting for them, but she is much more interesting, and her mysterious backstory is relevant to the plot). Plus the villain of the piece is determined to restore women to their rightful places, make himself king, and force everyone to read his poetry! Anyway this was pure giddy entertainment, with a slyly hilarious (and feminist) narrative voice. I just hope they corrected all the “discrete”s to “discreet” in time for publication. A-.

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

2021 book 129

 Connie Willis' Doomsday Book

I’ve tried reading this a couple of times, but never got far because I assumed the story of a young woman historian getting stranded in the 1300s would be stressful. But I love To Say Nothing of the Dog so much that this time I plowed ahead anyway. And it was stressful, but not in the ways I expected. Meanwhile, her colleagues back in the future think something has gone wrong with her trip, but soon there’s a flu pandemic getting in the way of figuring it out (a timely read). Anyway the characters here are great but this book is GRIM. I kind of admire Willis for writing one book that is so fun and one that is the opposite of fun in the same series (and with a couple of the same characters). B+?

2021 book 128

 Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog

Normally I wait until the last possible minute to read my books for book club, so the details are fresh, but I was just too excited to reread this one! I LOVE a sci fi time travel romantic comedy full of bumbling and literary references and hilarity and dogs and cats. (I couldn’t sleep last night so was up reading, and maybe it was my tiredness, but one scene with a cat and a dog had me giggling out loud for like five pages straight.) So good.

2021 book 127

 Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts' Daughter of the Empire

I’m back to reading classic fantasy books I missed the first time around, and I’ve heard good things about Janny Wurts. I had some mixed feelings about this one, a start to a trilogy: it’s set in a pretty patriarchal world, where all the Lords are caught up in high-powered political games and there are a lot of rules involving honor. Our protagonist is a young girl whose father and brother are murdered, so now she's in charge of their estate (or whatever), and has to learn to play the game, avenge their deaths, avoid being murdered herself, and make her family name strong again. So I love all of that, I’m a sucker for books about politicking, and she’s clever and interesting (though sometimes too clever and making herself deadly enemies). But like there’s also a whole thing where she marries for an alliance and her husband is abusive and rapey to the slaves, and also she has a bunch of slaves murdered to keep a secret so she’s not so great either. I wish the slaves weren’t literally disposable, I guess. Though I imagine that is typical for slave owners. I guess I wish they didn’t own slaves?? Am I overthinking this? I’m not sure if I’ll read the rest of this series. B/B+.

2021 book 126

 Becky Chambers' A Psalm for the Wild-Built

So this is the start of a new series from Chambers, the Monk and Robot series, and yet somehow I was surprised it involves a monk and a robot! (They’re both great.) In this world, it’s the far future, and robots gained consciousness and were like, we're not into these robot lives, and took themselves off into the wilderness, never to be seen again. The monk (non-binary) is on a quest to find themself and inevitably encounters a robot, who is going out on behalf of its people to see what humans are up to these days. This book has a chill vibe and it highly recommended if you are looking for books with a chill vibe, books where characters have discussions about nature and philosophy, and books where a monk teaches a robot how to cook onions. I look forward to more of their adventures (and hope we get more info on their religion, which is super interesting). Honestly, my only complaint is that I did want more! A/A-.

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

2021 book 125

 Timandra Whitecastle's Queens of the Wyrd

I liked the concept of this a lot, but the execution left a little to be desired. The main character is a half-giant in old Norse times, who was part of a famous band of warrior women until she got pregnant and retired. Now it’s ten years later and her old best friend needs her help on a rescue mission—and maybe preventing Ragnarok while they’re at it? But maybe they need more than just the two of them? Yup, it’s time to get the gang back together! (The other two are magical immortal types, one is the consort of Hel!) Anyway, that is all fine and dandy, but the book needed one more pass with a proofreader (lots of typos, and some weird repetitions), and maybe for the messages to be a little more subtle. Lots of gory battle scenes which are not really my thing, but I did like all the lady camaraderie and motherly feelings (still, despite the many hints toward her daughter's parentage, it’s frustrating not to have it confirmed). So this was fine, but it could have been awesomer? Oh well. B.

2021 book 124

 Alexis Hall's Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake

I have to be in the right mood for a contemporary romance, but this one is set in what is basically the Great British Bake-Off, so it shot to the top of my list. The problem here is that I was super psyched to read a novel about a struggling bisexual single mother competing in a baking show, and was initially not interested in the romance at all. I kept waiting for the romance scenes to end so the baking show stuff could commence! Or more scenes with her sassy lesbian best friend, adorable daughter, and/or her overachieving, overbearing parents. But then I realized I was reading a different story than I thought and got way more invested. I did wish it got there a liiiiittle faster; there is A LOT of frustrating stuff in there (I prefer less time spent on JERKS/it's annoying to wait so long for the inevitable). But good discussions of classism/what makes for a meaningful life. I think this would have been better if the balance had shifted a little earlier, but still very fun. B+.

2021 book 123

 Olivia Atwater's Ten Thousand Stitches

The second book in this series focuses on the cheerful bumbling faerie who briefly appeared in the first book, here determined to help a housemaid by basically acting as a fairy godfather (and getting her married to the aristo she has a crush on). The romance stuff is pretty predictable and therefore frustrating, but I really liked the friendship and camaraderie between the household servants. And the cheerful faerie is an absolute delight. I wanted more from the magic reveal at the end, but this was still a pleasant read. B+.

2021 book 122

 Olivia Atwater's Half a Soul

I surely do love a Regency fantasy romance, and this was a GREAT example of why! Our heroine had half her soul stolen by a faerie when she was a child, and now lives a somewhat unusual and emotionless life. But she’s off to London with her cousin, because her aunt is ready for some matchmaking! Lots of great meddling mamas and clever governesses here, but the book also addresses the social ills of the time (and it’s not entirely as fluffy as I make it sound; the aunt is a right old harridan to our poor heroine). Great slow building romance and side characters, and Atwater ties it up with a neat bow. A-.