2022 book 190

 N.K. Jemisin's The City We Became

Rereading this because the sequel is out tomorrowwwwww! This was actually more stressful than I remembered (or maybe it’s that there is a fair amount of racist/neo-Nazi/alt-right villainy in here, and there’s been more of that in real life since I read it last). Anyway, I still love the story of a bunch of New Yorkers becoming avatars of the city and fighting off Lovecraftian alien invaders (Ps I hate you, Staten Island) and I’m super excited to read the next volume.

2022 book 189

 Marie Brennan’s Driftwood

I liked the Lady Trent books, so decided to try this book by the same author, about a place where dying worlds come together, and the one man who has lived for generations and seen it all. This book gets at some profound things but it still kind of left me cold. It’s told as a series of stories about the maybe-immortal man, and some are more compelling than others, but also it doesn’t really /lead/ anywhere. I don’t need a pat conclusion but I would have liked more of a point? Very interesting stuff here, but it just didn’t totally come together for me. B.

2022 book 188

 Tracy Deonn's Bloodmarked

I really loved Legendborn, so have been eagerly anticipating/mildly anxious about the second book in the series. And it is a whirlwind, action-packed, tons going on, lots of interesting magical conflict and teen drama balanced out by discussions of serious things like racism and the lingering effects of slavery (there is some VERY COOL Black Girl Magic in this one). I did maybe wish for a little less teen drama, but it IS a YA book, and the text literally acknowledges the drama, so I really can’t complain. I will say the protagonist makes several frustrating (to me) choices during this book, but things move so quickly that it almost doesn’t even matter? At least it’s never predictable! Lots of interesting new characters and revelations, I think the fans will be pleased with this follow-up and intrigued to see where things go next (obviously myself included). A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on November 8th.

2022 book 187

 Rachel Neumeier’s The Keeper of the Mist

I see a lot of lists like “If you like The Goblin Emperor, try these other books” and I’m kind of surprised not to have seen this book on such a list, because it does have a similar plot and feel. I mean it is YA and the main character is a teenage girl, so is it just garden variety sexist dismissiveness? Anyway, this is the story of a tiny little country surrounded by magical mist that hides it from its neighbors, and when the Lord dies, the country chooses his successor—but it’s not one of the three sons everyone expects, it’s his illegitimate teen daughter, who runs the local bakery. So now she’s in charge of things, trying to figure out court politics and deal with magical crises, etc. Maybe that makes it sound fluffier than it is—things do get stressful! My only complaint is that this whole book takes place over like a week or so, and I really wished for more! A-.

2022 book 186

 Everina Maxwell's Ocean's Echo

I think this is set in the same universe as Maxwell's first book, but it seems to be another pocket of it entirely—anyway, it’s definitely a stand-alone. Interestingly, it’s much less of a romance than the first one—or at least the romance is not the focus here at all. I’m not even going to try to describe the plot/world-building because there is a lot going on, suffice it to say that a slightly disreputable dude (whose aunt is a powerful politician) and a career military guy have to pair up to deal with military/political corruption and come to respect each other! Lots of interesting conflicts and action here, a very entertaining read. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on November 1st.

2022 book 185

 Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland's Path of Deceit

I was psyched to start Phase Two of the Star Wars High Republic books, which seem to follow all new characters on all new adventures, but this got WAAAAAAAAY grimmer than I expected, and after reading the descriptions of the upcoming books, I think I’m going to pass on this whole thing. Anyway, this is the story of a master and a padawan posted to the Outer Rim who get tangled up with a weird Force cult and its mysterious prophet. The POV characters are the padawan, a cheerful dude, and two girls from the cult, a pair of cousins, one of whom is a true believer, while the other works as a thief and is desperate to escape with her girlfriend. This book was very effective but also bummed me out in a big way. B?

2022 book 184

 Andrea K. Host's Voice of the Lost

So I was pretty lukewarm on this sequel. Interesting magic stuff/action stuff, and I love all the secondary characters (who needed more screen time), but at a certain point the plot becomes ONLY about a romance that I wasn’t invested in, and drops all the other plotlines, and that was just not an interesting ending to me. B.

2022 book 183

 Andrea K. Host's The Silence of Medair

I really enjoyed the sci-fi series I read by Host, so decided to try a fantasy duology by her since it was already on my to-read list. This is an intriguing set-up, about a woman who works for the Emperor, until an invading army comes, and she goes off on a quest to find a mystical macguffin that will save them. And she finds it! Except she stops to sleep for the night, and when she wakes up, five hundred years have passed, her people lost the war, and both groups have intermarried for centuries, so who even counts as “her people” anymore? And then she’s caught up in a bunch of magic and politics, which is my jam. This fell off a little for me towards the end, but I have hope the sequel will make up for it. A-.

2022 book 182

 Gabrielle Zevin's Young Jane Young

Rereading this for book club this month, and I maintain that this book is very underrated and would have gotten much more attention if it’d come out a couple years later. Just ahead of its time! I think I liked it more the first time I read it, just was more caught up in the story and all the different narrators (and early reports from book club indicate they have all been enjoying it a lot). I mean I still liked it a lot, and especially liked the ending. I’ll be interested in this discussion for sure.

2022 book 181

 Andrea K. Host's In Arcadia

I liked this book, because I’m still very invested in this world, but I liked it a little less than its predecessors. Mainly because it doesn’t have the very likable first person/diary format, and it’s instead third person, but it also felt pretty rushed. I did like that it was about a non-teen (the protagonist of the series' mother!) and was mainly about her finding romance etc (too bad all the major plot point were spoiled by book four). Still, a nice chill read. A-.

2022 book 180

 Andrea K. Host's Gratuitous Epilogue

This is actually meatier than the title suggests, covering basically the year in the life after the end of the trilogy—lots of settling down, marriage and babies and adoptions etc (a few of the minor characters are even not-straight), building new cities and houses and lives together. And of course there are still dangers to fight. This was a nice extended visit with characters I love. A-.

2022 book 179

 Andrea K. Host's Caszandra 

Literally SOBBING about how much I loved this trilogy, talk about a satisfying ending, literal found family, space adventures, book nerdery, lots of love to go around, etc. I was going to have a full book hangover about being done with this, but it turns out there’s a novella (called “Gratuitous Epilogue”), a full length novel, and a cute-sounding short story?? There’s the rest of my day sorted. A.

2022 book 178

 Andrea K. Host's Lab Rat One

I am SUPER INVESTED in these books, I am enjoying the heck out of them. My only complaint about this one is that I wished there was just slightly less pining over her crush (honestly that is very realistic for a teen girl!), but I was still rooting for their romance. Lots more adventures and friendships and snowball fights and archeology in this one, plus a fairly entertaining subplot about a character based on the protagonist being written into a popular tv show (or the alien equivalent of a tv show). I love it. A/A-.

2022 book 177

 Andrea K. Host's Stray

I’ve seen this trilogy recommended a few different places, and I’ve liked the Australian fantasy novels I’ve read, so decided to try some Australian sci-fi. And right away I was totally into it, I love the narrative voice here so much. It’s the story of Cassandra, a teen girl who leaves school one day and somehow walks onto another planet, where she has to find a way to survive…at least until she’s rescued by a highly advanced society that has a protocol for dealing with “strays” who accidentally ended up on planets far from their homes. And then it turns out she’s surprisingly useful… Solid adventures and characters here, and like I said, I was totally caught up in it, can’t wait to see what happens in book two. A/A-.

2022 book 176

 Freya Marske's A Restless Truth

I liked the first book in this series a lot and was psyched for the second, which … was fine. It’s awesome that the romance is between two women (the non-magical sister of one of the guys from book one, and a scandalous magician heiress she meets on a ship from New York back to England), but the romance itself felt kind of rushed/all over the place (the whole book takes place over six days). Whereas solving the mystery (here, a magical murder and stolen magical macguffins) takes too long to get going. I feel like the author balanced that better in the first one—the pacing didn’t work for me as well here. It was just really slow (though I thought the very steamy parts worked well). I’m guessing the third book will be about the Lord with the mysterious past who reluctantly helps with the mystery and the journalist who gets dragged into things. I might or might not bother with it. B.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on November 1st.

2022 book 175

 Patricia McKillip’s The Sorceress and the Cygnet

This was on the slower/weirder side of McKillip's stuff, but I came around to liking it by the end (I did almost give up on it several times during the first third though). It’s about a young man given a quest to complete or his people will be lost in a misty dreamland forever, the sorceress who helps him, and eventually her family (things get much more interesting once they come into play). Good stuff here about families and stories and magic. But slow as hell. B+.

2022 book 174

 Blair Braverman's Small Game

I haven’t really been into thriller-y/suspense books of late, but you betcha I’m gonna read a novel by Blair Braverman about a small group of people on a survival-themed reality show and what happens when things go wrong! It’s very stressful and compulsively readable in equal measures. It furthers my determination to never stay somewhere that doesn't have electricity and indoor plumbing. I did want a /little/ bit more from the ending, but that is a fairly minor complaint. It totally scratched that Yellowjackets itch for me (albeit without cults). I hope Blair writes more novels! A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on November 1st.

2022 book 173

 Marie Brennan's Turning Darkness into Light

This was a nice way to say goodbye to this world—the protagonist is Lady Trent's granddaughter, and we do get to hear about a bunch of the characters from the earlier books, and the impact those adventures had on the future generations. I also admit this was a little more in my wheelhouse, as the protagonist is a linguist who is working on translating some newly discovered and exciting ancient texts! (I had hopes for a lil sapphic love story between her and the socially awkward niece of her employer, but it was not to be.) Eventually the story does get pretty action-packed in a way that is slightly over the top, but still a fun read. A/A-.

2022 book 172

 Marie Brennan's Within the Sanctuary of Wings

Honestly, this was a super satisfying conclusion to the Lady Trent series! I did not expect where this went but it totally makes sense in retrospect, and it was all super compelling. I’m sorry to be done with this series, but glad there's a related book about Lady Trent's granddaughter so I can stay lost in this world a little longer. A/A-.

2022 book 171

 Marie Brennan's In the Labyrinth of Drakes

This was a very satisfying volume! It’s mainly set in the fictional analogue to the Middle East (there are a couple minor characters with distinctly Jewish names, but most of the characters seem to practice a fictional version of Islam). Anyway, our heroine and her colleague are asked to work on a dragon breeding program on behalf of their army, and have a variety of the usual adventures while attempting to do science. I’m frankly super invested in all of them at this point and am excited to read the fifth book. A/A-.

2022 book 170

 Marie Brennan's Voyage of the Basilisk

I am definitely enjoying this series more than I did the last time around, maybe because I’m reading it all at once so am more invested in the characters/world, or maybe it’s just how some books hit you different at different times. This one mainly takes place in some fictional version of what I think are the Polynesian Islands, lots of adventure and discovery and humor. Some interesting gender stuff too. This is actually the last one I’d already read of these, and I’m looking forward to new adventures.

2022 book 169

 Marie Brennan's The Tropic of Serpents

I liked this book a lot better than the last time I read it, maybe I just appreciate slower fantasy these days. And this did have a fair amount of action! I do still think the illustrations are kind of racist, but the narrator's descriptions of this fictional version of Africa bothered me less this time (maybe because I knew to expect it or it wasn’t as bad as I remembered—though it’s arguably still not great). I get that authors are playing with the trips of actual historical travelogues/writing, but I can’t think of one example where a European-analogue interacts with a “foreign” analogue that isn’t at least a little cringeworthy.

2022 book 168

 Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons

I was in the mood for a whole series, and remembered I’d never read the last few of this one, so here we are! This is basically set in historical England, except the place names and religion are all made up, but anyway, the main character wants to study the natural sciences (specifically dragons), but women are discouraged from things like that. The whole thing is narrated from the POV of her elderly self, looking back on her life and adventures (and rethinking some of them). It doesn’t seem like a lot of science actually happens in this book, but there are lots of adventures. Entertaining stuff.

2022 book 167

 Jake Maia Arlow's How to Excavate a Heart

After accidentally reading a very Christian book, I decided this would be the perfect antidote: a romance novel about a couple of Jewish lesbians….set at Christmas, lol. Anyway, our main character is Shani, a college freshman who’s come to DC over winter break for an internship, nursing a broken heart after being dumped by her girlfriend. And she keeps running into this cute girl…literally, actually: the first time Shani's mom hits the girl with their car! Anyway, I thought this book was super adorable, and I even bought the inevitable late-book communication issues bc they were teens dealing with trauma. Lots of fun secondary characters too, I would soooo watch a movie based on this. Very enjoyable, and I a, definitely making my book club read this. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on November 1st.