2024 book 72

 T. Kingfisher's What Feasts at Night

Ok, I liked this one so much more, probably because it’s barely scary and way less gross! (Reminder that I am a GIANT WUSS.) This one finds Alex on their way to their hunting lodge to hang out with Beatrix Potter's aunt, who they befriended in the previous book. But the caretaker has died, and a malevolent spirit may be the cause. Oh, also, Alex is dealing with major PTSD. This one is playing much more with dark folklore instead of monstrous nature, which is way easier for me personally. I also love the characters and the humor, as always. A/A-.

2024 book 71

 T. Kingfisher's What Moves the Dead

Normally I’ll read anything Kingfisher writes, but I’m a giant wuss and the cover of this book scared me!! But she did a reading from the sequel recently and that and the way she talked about the series made me want to read it, so here we are. It’s a take on The Fall of the House of Usher, set in the 1800s in a made-up European country, and involves a solder (from a country where soldiers have their own set of pronouns) going to visit some old friends who are ill. I will say this is not jump scare kind of horror, but it is very eerie and also gross!!! But I do love Kingfisher's writing. A-/B+.

2024 book 70

 Patricia Wentworth's Mr Brading's Collection 

I was in the mood for a mystery so decided to check back in on the Miss Silver series. This was perfectly adequate. Lol. It involves a rich jerk who wants to hire Miss Silver but she refuses! But when he gets murdered she ends up involved anyway. The main characters are a divorced couple who will obviously reconcile by the end, all of the Miss Silver mysteries have a couple that will get together by the end. The mystery itself was interesting enough, and I enjoy reading this, but this wasn’t a fave. B/B+.

2024 book 69

 Effie Calvin's Daughter of the Sun

I did like this one more than the first—as I mentioned, the one thing I really liked in that one was the religion stuff, and this one leans more into that, as it involves a chaos goddess trapped in a mortal body falling for a (lady) Paladin of the sun god. Lol. Very cute. It drags a little in the middle but was definitely a stronger story with even better characters. I don’t think I’ll continue with the series though. B+.

2024 book 68

 Effie Calvin's The Queen of Ieflaria

I wanted to read something light/cute, and this WAS very cute, but not much else. It’s about a young princess who comes to a new country to get married,but her betrothed has died and now the heir is his younger sister, who doesn’t want to rule. Also, dragons keep attacking. So am I here for a sapphic fantasy romance? Yes, and I liked the characters a lot, and thought the stuff with religion was really interesting. BUT the plot and romance are both totally underbaked. It’s frustrating because the writing is good and the bones of a solid story are there, but I really needed it to be way more fleshed out. Still, I’ll give the next book in the series a try bc this world is interesting. B/B+.

2024 book 67

 Grace Curtis' The Floating Hotel

I really liked Curtis' first novel and was excited for this one, which was also super enjoyable! It’s set in a giant spaceship hotel, which has seen better days, and each chapter is from the POV of a different staff member or guest, all coming together to tell the story of a wonderful place. Lots of fun stuff comes up—movie nights, heists, music, etc—but there are also some spies on board, trying to track down a political dissident. Curtis nails the ending, too; this was a very satisfying read. A/A-.

2024 book 66

 Holly Gramiazo's The Husbands

This premise is a bit hard to explain but it’s kind of a magical realism/alternate universe sort of thing, where one evening a woman comes home and a dude is in her apartment; he’s apparently her husband but she isn’t married and doesn’t know him. And then it turns out every time a husband goes into the attic, a new husband comes down, and she’s in a different version of her life. I really liked the narrative voice here and this story was compelling enough that I read it all in one sitting. And I ended up really liking how it wrapped up, too. Recommended if you want something on the lighter side that is still interesting! A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on April 2nd.

2025 book 65

 T. Kingfisher's Nettle and Bone

Rereading this for book club and it’s just as good every time I read it! Dark, funny, full of great women characters, just so satisfying.

2024 book 64

 Martha Wells' The Gate of Gods

Ughhhhh I LOVE this series and the end of this one is so good and satisfying! I love all these characters so much! I don’t even have anything else to say about this, haha.

2024 book 60

 Martha Wells' The Ships of Air

Ughhhh I love this series, this is such a good second chapter. The characters remain great, I’m fully on board for the matter of fact romance, villains and secrets abound, the women rule, everyone is hanging out on a luxury cruiser turned warship/refugee camp, there’s magic and mystery galore. SO GOOD.

2024 book 59

 Martha Wells' The Wizard Hunters

I last read this like four years ago, and I’ve read a few hundred books since then (brag), but certain scenes/images have been stuck in my mind that whole time because they’re so vivid (all the stuff with the caves, and the giant passenger ship that I think is a big part of the second book). Anyway, this is the first book in the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy and the protagonist is a depressed playwright who is also the daughter of the badass couple from Death of the Necromancer. Their country is in a losing war against a mysterious enemy and she ends up in another world in a bid to find out more—lots of cool adventures ensue. The pacing and characters here are just on fire, totally captivating, this is such a good book. 

2024 book 58

 Martha Wells' The Death of the Necromancer

This was also recently reissued as a revised edition by Wells, and I’m not sure if that was why, but I liked it way more than the first time I read it (when I thought it was just fine). Things start with a heist but revenge plans are put to the side when a dangerous sorcerer starts to come after our protagonist. (And he and his actress girlfriend/partner in crime are one of my favorite fictional couples right now.) I loved how this built up and came to a very satisfying conclusion. I love all the mutual respect/friendship/dedication to stopping evil dudes. Really good stuff. A/A-.

2024 book 57

 Martha Wells' The Element of Fire

This was recently reissued in a newly edited version by Wells, so I figured that was a good excuse to reread this series, which I remember liking. This one is a pretty classic style fantasy novel featuring evil sorcerers, powerful fairies, court politics, etc. I love the main characters, the captain of the queen's guard and the queen's stepdaughter, who is half-fairy. It’s a little slow in the second half but still entertaining. 

2024 book 56

 Natasha Pulley's The Mars House

I didn’t really look at the description before picking this up—I was like, hey, I like Natasha Pulley, cool! Our main character is a dude named January who’s a principal dancer for the London Ballet, except it’s the future and London ends up totally flooded bc of climate change, so January has to move to Mars. And Earth humans on Mars have to undergo a painful and debilitating surgery to adapt to Mars gravity, or else they’re second-class citizens, and he ends up as a factory worker, where he gets into a televised argument with a powerful politician. And then things pivoted to a place I didn’t expect: the politician proposes an arranged marriage for Reasons (it makes sense, as far as fake marriages in books ever make sense). Yes, y’all, this book involves A FAKE MARRIAGE ON MARS. Oh, and ALSO, they’re on a reality show. AND there are major politics at play. This book should not work!! And yet, it mostly does! Things get a little slow in the second half and one plot reveal takes WAY too long to come, but there are so many cool moments (mammoths!) and I was totally caught up in this world. Very fun read, slightly all over the place but I enjoyed that. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on March 19th.

2024 book 55

 Rachel Neumeier's Marag

Another delightful entry in the Tuyo series, this one is a prequel involving how Ryo's parents met and for married, solving some tribal problems and some supernatural problems along the way. This was a bit slow but in sort of a meditative way, and I was already invested in the characters and enjoyed seeing their early interactions. And seeing lots of other familiar faces. Very satisfying. A/A-.

2024 book 54

 Richard Osman's The Last Devil to Die

The mystery in this one was easier to figure out than in some of the earlier ones, but that almost doesn’t even matter when the character stuff is so good. The story here involves some missing heroin and the murder of an acquaintance, plus the usual shenanigans. Osman is apparently starting a new series but has said this one isn’t finished, but this is a pretty solid finale if he doesn’t return to it. A/A-.

2024 book 53

 Richard Osman's The Bullet That Missed

This was so good!!! The plot involves the team working on the cold case of a journalist who was killed ten years ago while investigating some heavy duty financial fraud, but also a guy is trying to get Elizabeth to kill an old spy colleague. Some absolutely hilarious moments, some heartbreaking ones, amazing friendships and relationships as always, just very solid and entertaining. A.

2024 book 52

 Richard Osman's The Man Who Died Twice

Another very fun and entertaining read! This one involves spies, the mafia, stolen diamonds, ex-husbands, and lots of very hilarious senior citizens. I do think you can’t think about this series too hard because it is a little silly/unrealistic, but that’s why I like it—I mean, also the characters and their friendships are wonderful, but these are pretty escapist as murder mysteries go. A-.

2024 book 51

 Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club

Several people I know have enjoyed this series, so I figured I’d give it a go, and I also enjoyed this first one a lot! It centers on a small group of people who live in a retirement village and look at cold cases as a hobby, at least until there’s an actual local murder. Soon they’re adopting detectives and basically taking over the investigation. It’s all pretty funny, but the characters were solid enough to keep me very invested, and the mystery ended up being more interesting than I anticipated. Looking forward to the next one. A/A-.

2024 book 50

 Barbara Comyns' Our Spoons Came From Woolworths

So this has been on my to-read list for years (my best guess is I read a good review when it got reissued like ten years ago), but I’m reading it now because Ann Patchett raves about it in one of her recent videos where she discusses backlist books, and she compared it to both The English Understand Wool AND Nancy Mitford, so you bet your bippy I bought it immediately. Buuuuut maybe my expectations were too high after those comparisons? It was fine, but didn’t reach the heights of those books, and I really felt like the characters weren’t super well developed. Very charming narrative voice though. (Oh, plot summary: it’s narrated by a naive young woman who has married a young artist and they have to try and survive in poverty because he won’t get a real job.) B+.

2024 book 49

 Tana French's The Hunter

This was JUST as good as The Searcher; I love these characters and this mildly sinister Irish town. Trey and Lena both get to be POV characters in this one, which I think fleshes things out a lot. Anyway, this is set two years later and centers on Trey's deadbeat dad coming back to town, and also there’s a whole thing with a scam involving mining for gold, and eventually someone ends up dead. I did end up really liking this as a mystery, but for me the story is so much more about the characters and their relationships, just really compelling. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.

2024 book 48

 Tana French's The Searcher

I never read this when it first came out, partially because I didn’t love her previous book, and partially because it was fall 2020 and I wasn’t in the mood for a literary mystery. But there is a sequel out tomorrow, I am back in the mood for literary mysteries, and this was GREAT! It’s about a former Chicago cop who has moved to a small town in Ireland basically on a whim after his wife leaves him and he leaves his job, and he’s looking forward to restoring his lil house and fishing and whatnot, when a local kid asks him to investigate a missing brother. But he’s new to this small town and doesn’t really understand the locals and their secrets. AMAZING characters and atmosphere here, totally sad but a wonderful ending. A.

2024 book 47

 Micaiah Johnson's Those Beyond the Wall

I have been VERY eagerly awaiting the sequel/companion to The Space Between Worlds, and this may have even surpassed my expectations?! The story is set ten years later and the protagonist is a minor character from the first book, Nik Nik's girl runner/mechanic—but many of the characters from the first book are prominent. Anyway, things kick off with a series of grisly deaths that are clearly related to world-hopping, and our protagonist and her cohort have to figure out how to stop it. I loved seeing the inner worlds of the emperor and the runners, and seeing more of the politics between the city and the people outside it. Once again, totally gripping action and trenchant commentary on class and poverty, but most importantly, amazingly vivid characters and world. I can’t wait to see what Johnson does next. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on March 12th.