2022 book 155

 Emily Lloyd-Jones' The Drowned Woods

This was a pretty solid stand-alone fantasy book, centering on a girl with rare water-bending powers who’s taken from her family to work for the local prince. But when she realizes he’s using her ability to locate water to poison innocent people on the other side of the war, she goes on the run! Until his former spymaster tracks her down with an enticing offer—steal a bunch of treasures from a magical well, which will also destabilize the prince's rule because of magic. Soon the usual motley assortment of heist-ers are on the case, including the other POV character, a dude who works for the fairies and has some interesting abilities, and also her ex-girlfriend, the princess of thieves. Parts of this follow the typical story beats, but some parts did surprise me. I did wish the ending had kind of gone in the more interesting direction, but it was fine. Also of note, there is an excellent corgi in this book and NOTHING BAD HAPPENS TO HIM. B+.

2022 book 154

 Becky Chambers' To Be Taught, If Fortunate

I was in the mood for some sci-fi and was reminded of this Becky Chambers stand-alone, about four astronauts visiting various far-fling planets to search for life, so figured I’d reread it. I will say it is way more science-heavy than I remembered, and I was a little too tired tonight to really engage with that in a meaningful way. But I still enjoyed all the characters and their joys and despairs. Interesting ending too. 

2022 book 153

 Rachel Neumeier’s The Mountain of Kept Memory

This book… was slow. The protagonists are a pair of siblings, the prince and princess of a country whose father has offended the immortal being that protects their home, and now they’ve been weakened by a plague and foreign invaders are encroaching. I really enjoyed everything going on with the princess (secretly very politically savvy) but the prince's sections draaaagggggged. I also kept waiting for the story to be revealed to be like a far future post-apocalyptic kind of thing, but we did not get enough answers about the mysterious protector and all the gods being dead. (And one character is obviously a traitor but that takes WAY too long for everyone else to figure out.) So I was kind of frustrated by this book. Loved the princess character and everything with her story arc, most of the rest didn’t really work for me. B.

2022 book 152

 Rachel Neumeier’s The City in the Lake

After enjoying the Tuyo books so much, I decided to check out more of Neumeier’s work, which is when I discovered that a) I’d read a YA series by her years ago, and b) several of her other books were already on my to-read list, including this one! Which was just the kind of slightly weird and compelling fantasy I love! Now I will say to maybe avoid reading the official synopsis on this one, since it discusses some things that aren’t revealed until like halfway through the book. But the main characters here are the eldest son of the king, illegitimate, who’s searching for his missing younger brother, the heir; and a daughter of a mage in a small village, growing up wondering about the mother who left her, hanging with her girlfriends, and learning magic from her father (there is also a local guy who has a crush on her who is a secondary POV character). Eventually these stories comes together as the mage joins the search for the missing prince, since his loss is affecting the kingdom in sad ways, and when he never returns, his daughter goes after him. Magical forests, talking serpents, angry queens, and evil sorceresses ensue, for a really interesting and satisfying story. Definitely reading more by this author. A/A-.

2022 book 151

 Bianca Marais' The Witches of Moonshyne Manor

So first let me say that even though this is billed as “a witchy rom-com,” there isn’t actually any major romance in this book (and barely any minor romantic elements, for that matter). Instead, it’s the story of a group of 80-something witches (several are queer) who are on the verge of losing the titular manor where they’ve all lived since they were little girls, mainly because the patriarchy wants to bring them down! And I’m  not exaggerating: the villain of the piece wants their land to create “Men's World,” which features a golf course, paintball, and a strip club. So that's the level of plot we're working with here. There’s also a whole thing with flashbacks to a mysterious event thirty years earlier that sent one of their own to prison, and she’s about to be released, and also some business with the feminist teen daughter of the local mayor (whose dialogue is clearly written by a non-teen trying to sound hip). This was entertaining enough, I mean I am here for drama with elderly witches, but the last chunk was overly ridiculous and I found that annoying. B.

2022 book 150

 Patricia McKillip’s The Book of Atrix Wolfe

I’ve been saving a couple of books by McKillip for a rainy day, but book 150 of the year felt like it deserved something special. And this is really one of her masterpieces, about a mage who made a horrible mistake while trying to stop a war, and the people who are still caught up in that mistake twenty years later, particularly a young sorcerer prince and a scullery maid under an enchantment (very fairy tales vibes here). Lots of magic and sadness and hope, and I loved the ending. SUPER good. A. 

2022 book 149

 Terry Pratchett's Mort

I have a long weekend staycation thing going on, and wanted a series to read, and figured I’d try some of the Discworld books I haven’t read. I decided to start the Death books, even though I had read one of them before and not liked it that much, but that happened with one of the Guards books too, which I liked much more once I had read all those from the beginning! So I figured that would happen here too. But this one, where Death takes a human apprentice, just wasn’t really my jam. It was fine, but it didn’t exactly leave me eager to pick up the rest of the Death books. I think I'll try some of the stand-alones. B.

2022 book 148

 R.A. MacAvoy's Tea with the Black Dragon

I don’t remember where I saw this book recommended, but I am giving it some side-eye. At first I was into it—I did have to look up the publication date (1983) because some of the language is veeeeeeeerrrrrry dated—but I was enjoying the growing friendship of a musician visiting San Francisco to meet with her daughter and the debonair guy she meets in the hotel who is very obviously actually a dragon. I was like, great, this seems cozy and philosophical! But then it turns out the daughter is missing, and we're shortly in a bad action movie. NOT the vibe. There is a sequel that looks even more grim (kidnapped toddlers and murder, apparently). B/B-.

2022 book 147

 Mari Lowe's Aviva vs the Dybbuk

I’m pretty much always going to read a Jewish fantasy book, and while I didn’t /love/ this one, I know a couple kids I might recommend it to. It’s a middle grade book about an Orthodox Jewish girl whose father died in an accident several years earlier, and now she and her mother live in a small apartment over the mikvah, which is haunted by a dybbuk. The plot beats are all pretty formulaic, but I did appreciate seeing this sort of story in a Jewish context. I especially loved all the scenes of the various women at the mikvah (there were a lot of awesome women in this book). And I still did cry a couple of times! B+.

2022 book 146

 Lish McBride's A Little Too Familiar

Basically, these days I'm only interested in romance novels if there’s a magical element, and I wanted to try this one because I remembered liking McBride's YA books I read back in the day. And this was a cute romance but parts of it were a little heavy! Our heroine is an animal mage who helps familiars and witches bond. And our hero is a werewolf whose girlfriend left him for his sister, and by the way he is afraid of animal mages due to a very traumatic childhood (his father and stepmother were abusive and also ran a cult, which does come into play as they escape prison and try and track their children down). Now I personally prefer romance novels with less immediate ogling/horny thoughts, I like there to be buildup to horniness, but I stuck it out bc the characters were interesting (I love ALL the side characters, this is a found family bonanza, and many of them are queer) and was glad I did. But like I said, things do get kind of heavy, so just a lil warning there. But if you want a romance with magic, a baby phoenix, and some pretty hilarious moments involving a flock of pigeons, this one is good. A-/B+.

2022 book 145

 Rachel Neumeier’s Suelen

Yes, I did spend the entire weekend reading this series! This fifth one is another side story, involving the summer king's personal physician deciding to go to the winter country to tend to their people who were left behind (too wounded to travel) after the battle from the first book. He has to confront his prejudices about the “barbarians” and also has to try to do his magical healing in secret bc they hate magic, which grows complicated. But this was actually a chill book and very satisfying to read. I’m glad more in this series is coming soon. A/A-.

2022 book 144

 Rachel Neumeier’s Keraunani

This is another sort of side quest book, focusing on gruff soldier Esau, who was sent off on a mission in book three. And here is the story of that mission—finding a pregnant woman and marrying her, which should be simple but immediately goes off the rails—interspersed with flashbacks to Lalani's early days with the troops and some other missions Esau did. This has a lot of cute and funny parts to balance out the violence and action, though I was kind of over the flashbacks at a certain point. I loved how this one wrapped up. A-.

2022 book 143

 Rachel Neumeier’s Tarashana

The third book in the Tuyo series picks back up with the main characters from the first one about a year later, as they’re asked to visit the winter tribes to help solve a mystery involving a vanished group of people. Great story here involving harrowing journeys, magic, gods, a new adopted brother, and a teeny bit of romance. I am really into these books. A/A-.

2022 book 142

 Rachel Neumeier's Nikoles

It seems a little odd to be to have the second book in a series be a prequel about a somewhat minor character from the first book, especially when we know the gist of the story already. I actually almost put this down because the first section is kind of depressing to read, as the winter tribes and the summer nations are having increasingly escalating conflicts, mainly bc the summer people are bigoted assholes. Just unpleasant stuff. Eventually the good leader from the previous book comes into things, and we get to see him solve a conflict, and see how the main character came to be one of his commanders. And that was all fine. Just not as engrossing as the first book. B+.

2022 book 141

 Rachel Neumeier's Tuyo

I think I saw this on a list of RIYL Hands of the Emperor, which I do, so I figured I’d give it a go. It is a different sort of story but the vibe is there for sure. It’s about a young warrior from the winter tribes who's left as a sort of sacrifice for their enemies from the summer nation, but instead their leader decides not to kill him because he finds their war suspect, and sure enough, both groups soon discover they have a common enemy. So there is a fair amount of war stuff in this, but also a lot of cool camaraderie, family feelings, friendships and alliances, honor, magic, and some amazing women (the winter tribes have an interesting structure where the women are in charge of all the social/economic stuff). I’m excited to check more of this series out. A/A-.

2022 book 140

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s Paladin of Souls

God, I love this book! I mean I can’t even think of anything else to say about it! Such great characters, pacing, action. And the glimpses of the gods! Bujold creates such interesting worlds but her Five Gods stories are my favorite.

2022 book 139

 Lois McMaster Bujold's The Curse of Chalion

See, THIS is why I don't usually read in bed, because even though I planned to go to sleep early, and even though I have read this book more than once before, I could not put it down! It's just so interesting and satisfying to see the whole story--involving magic, gods, court intrigue, saints, the titular curse, and a tiny bit of romance--play out. I really love Bujold's world-building in these books (and the Pen and Desdemona ones, which are also set in this world) and the characters in this one are super compelling. Just a really rewarding read. 

2022 book 138

 Claire Willett's The Rewind Files

I do love a time travel adventure, though it is rare to read one that centers on Watergate! Anyway, so it’s 2112 and our protagonist works at the Time Bureau, following in the footsteps of her famous parents, though she much prefers her math-related desk job. But when things start going wrong, she’s suddenly sent back to 1972 to try and avert World War III! (A thing that happened in their version of the world!) I appreciated that the second half of this was a solid political thriller, even though I’m not a hundred percent sure it made sense (lots of time travel shenanigans to keep track of). And I loved all the characters. Occasionally the writing was a little too over the top, but a very fun and action-packed read. A-.

2022 book 137

 Premee Mohamed's And What Can We Offer You Tonight

I got a bunch of the Neon Hemlock novellas since I enjoyed the previous one I read and several more were on my to-read list; this one in particular was high up because it won a Nebula. Really interesting world and concept—it’s set in a high class brothel in a far future city, and events are set into motion when one of the courtesans is murdered, but then wakes back up for VENGEANCE. My problem was really with the main character—I wanted just a little bit more character development. Or I wished she made different choices, though I can’t say I didn’t buy her motivations. But it was all a little vague. Still, this was interesting enough that it made me want to check out what else the author has written. B+. 

2022 book 136

 Deanna Raybourn's Killers of a Certain Age

This… was fun. I want to see a movie based on this book. It’s the story of a group of four women, who were the first all-women squad of assassins trained by an elite organization of Nazi-hunters (who’ve moved onto other targets these days). But after forty years they’re retired and on a cruise to celebrate…until they realize one of the cruise crew is a fellow assassin and the organization has put a hit on THEM. So now they’re on the run trying to figure out who’s behind this, and why! Interspersed with flashbacks to their training, early missions, etc. You do have to suspend a fair amount of disbelief that sixty-something women would be doing ~hand waves~ all that, but it is entertaining for sure. A-.

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

2022 book 135

 Emily Bergslien and Kat Weaver's Uncommon Charm

This was a very entertaining novella about the disaffected upper-class teen daughter of a lady magician in 1920s London, and what happens when they take in a teenage Jewish boy who also has magic, and is the illegitimate son of a family friend (their family are assholes who “only served him pork every other day”). I loved the narrative voice here, and this has a chill vibe even as the teens are investigating family history and related murders and chatting with ghosts. I did wish for more, but that is my usual complaint with novellas, and this does wrap up in a satisfying way. I just hope the authors revisit them! Ps every character in this book is queer and I love it. A-.

2022 book 134

 Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer's Sorcery and Cecelia

The last few books I’ve read were kind of depressing, so here is the antidote: rereading a regency-era epistolary novel that also has a lot of MAGIC! And shenanigans! Now do these letters read like real letters and not book chapters, not particularly. Are the stories they tell—between two cousins, one of whom is in London for her season and one of whom has been left at home, as they get caught up in a magical mystery—entertaining? Very. (And honestly, could these girls fix everything much more quickly if their love interests were more forthcoming/more willing to believe in the power of young women? Yes, but then there wouldn’t be a book.) I remember liking the sequels a little less so I might not jump into those, but this was a very satisfying read.

2022 book 133

 GennaRose Nethercott's Thistlefoot

So I am definitely the target audience for this book, which is about a pair of siblings with mysterious abilities who inherit a house—but if I tell you their last name is Yaga, can you guess what house it is? And if having a living house with chicken legs isn’t enough, a creepy dude who can inspire fear and hatred is hunting it down. Nethercott takes the Baba Yaga stories and explicitly makes them Jewish, weaving in Yiddish folktales and Jewish history in a really interesting way. And even though pogroms were mentioned several times, I was still surprised as how dark/grim this got (not just pogrom-related). I’m not sure the climactic scene totally worked, and some of the characters felt a little underbaked (the secondary characters felt like movie characters, where it’d be enough development for a two hour thing but I want a little more in a novel), but I liked the end a lot and I especially liked the whole VIBE here, if you know what I mean. A/A-.

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

2022 book 132

 Felicia Berliner's Shmutz

After that last book, I wanted to read something completely different, and a novel about a Hasidic girl addicted to porn felt like as far as I could get. Great narrative voice here, though the Jewish characters felt way better written than the non-Jewish characters (so much potential with the protagonist befriending a group of goth kids, and it was all pretty flat). The middle kind of bogged down/got depressing—the blurbs made me think this would be horny, but it wasn’t really; as it goes on the porn watching becomes pretty joyless. I did think the way it wrapped up was interesting. I will be curious to see what the author does next. B+.

2022 book 131

 Nadeem Jamnia's The Bruising of Qilwa

So I’ll start with a caveat that this book involves blood magic, which gets kind of gross in the second half, and I have issues with blood/bruising making me feel sick, so I really should have put this book down when I realized the titular bruising was literal. I mean, that is probably not an issue for most readers, so take my review with a grain of salt. Anyway, I thought this might have Penric and Desdemona vibes, but not so much. It’s about a non-binary trainee healer and secret blood magic practitioner who, with their family (trans little brother, mother who isn’t in the book at all, weirdly), is fleeing a genocide (I really needed more explanation of the political goings-on because some important discussions toward the end made zero sense), and gets a job working for a healer, and there's a plague, and then they meet a young girl who is also a blood magic user and needs training, and then there’s a different plague, and there are some political tensions, and thoughts about identity. I dunno, there is a lot going on, I think this wouldn’t have totally worked for me even without all the blood splatter. I liked all the sibling relationships, that part was great. But the rest… the writing is kind of awkward. The end is also…a lot. This book made me feel bad on a lot of levels. Like physically and emotionally. B/B-.

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

2022 book 130

 Katherine Addison's The Grief of Stones

The further adventures of our fantasy mystery solver guy! Once again, great characters, solid plotting, and great atmosphere. The end indicated another volume will come someday and I eagerly await it.

2022 book 129

 Katherine Addison's The Witness for the Dead

I like that Addison returned to the Goblin Emperor world by focusing on one of the minor characters from that book and giving him a spin-off. And he’s a great and interesting character, solving various mysteries through being able to talk to the dead (and general investigative skills). I also like that there are a variety of mysteries to keep things moving, as well as a growing friendship (or moooooore?) with the director of an opera company. I enjoy reading about the clearly depressed protagonist begrudgingly accepting friendship and kindness. And catching killers! Good times!

2022 book 128

 Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor

Just in the mood to reread all the books set in this little world, and of course had to start where it started! I’m tired and don’t feel like doing a plot description so will just say I love books about court politics and this is an amazing example, I cried twice out of niceness, the characters here are so well-written and you just want to give everyone a hug. I do hope the author returns to some of these other characters—I love the Witness for the Dead books but I want to read more about the academic ladies friendship club.