2024 book 84

 Lindsay King-Miller's The Z Word

So I am a HUGE wuss and am particularly not into zombies, but this was so fun that I didn’t even mind? The official description says “it’s the queer zombie romp you didn’t know you needed” and I can’t argue with that! The main character is dealing with queer angst as Pride kicks off and she's still hung up on her ex-girlfriend, but then things start getting weird and violent. Great characters here (I was partial to the very awesome pizza delivery person) and a fairly realistic look at a response to a zombie outbreak, I mean, considering. Lol. Obviously things get over the top but like, again, zombies. VERY FUN READ. I hope this becomes a movie. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on May 7th.

2024 book 83

 James S.A. Corey’s Persepolis Rising

This was kind of weird, because there’s like a THIRTY YEAR TIME JUMP, but the main characters are all exactly the same, doing the same jobs on their same ship and haven’t even managed to adopt any new crew members in all that time. I mean, it’s kind of sad! But I get why there has to be a big time jump for plot reasons, as we finally see what the people behind all the bad stuff from the last couple books have been up to—namely, planning an empire under an immortal dictator. SURE, WHY NOT. I actually liked this book a lot despite *hand waving* all that, because there’s lots of interesting political stuff going on and lots of little plots and plans, and I enjoy that sort of thing. Plus Bobbie! Very intrigued to see where things go next. A-.

 

2024 book 82

 Janice Hallett's The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels

I'm rereading this for book club, and it's one of those mysteries that's fun to reread because once you know what's going on, you can see how the clues are laid out/how it all works. At first, though, I was finding things kind of tiresome, because of the sort of gimmicky nature of the book—it’s all transcripts and emails and excerpts of novels etc. But after a good's night sleep I got caught up in the story again—the story is WILD and I’m not sure it really holds up on a rereading, but it sure is entertaining!

2024 book 81

 Kaliane Bradley's The Ministry of Time

This is being described as “part time travel romance, part spy thriller” and honestly I’m here for all of that? The narrator is a young woman who works for the government in England, who’s assigned a job as a “bridge” for one of several people who’s been pulled out of her time—in her case, Graham Gore, from the lost Franklin exploration of the arctic. I ended up being VERY invested in their relationship, and thought the first half of this especially was very funny. I’m not sure the spy thriller aspects ended up totally working, but I loved this book anyway. GREAT narrative voice and beautiful characters. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on May 7th.

2024 book 80

 James S.A. Corey’s Babylon's Ashes

I am still very invested in a lot of these characters, and I bet this all makes for a really compelling tv show, but this book was EXHAUSTING. I lost track of how many POV characters it had, and honestly, lost track of who a lot of them even were. But again, great characters! The plot is mostly just action scenes though and those aren’t always fun to read. I want more diplomacy and politics! I’m gonna take a brief break to rest my brain but I do plan on continuing the series. B/B+.

2024 book 79

 Victoria Goddard’s Terec and the Wild/ 

Taking a quick break from the Expanse series because Victoria Goddard put out a new novella, which is the sequel to this novella, and so obviously I had to reread this one to refresh my memory. It’s the story of the long-lost love of one of the dudes from the Hands of the Emperor books, and the journey he takes when he exiles himself due to his wild magic. This is the first of four, apparently, and hard to judge on its own since it really feels like an introduction. Still, I like everything Goddard writes. 

Terec and the Wall

I’m counting these as one book since they’re both just 52 pages. Like its predecessor, it’s pretty much all vibes until near the end, when Terec has an Unexpected Encounter (or perhaps not, if you’ve read anything by Goddard before) and some plot kicks in. Looking forward to the third. 

2024 book 78

 James S.A. Corey's Nemesis Games

This was interesting, because Holden and his three crew members all are off on their own adventures (which do, of course, collide), which means we have POV sections from Naomi, Alex, and Amos for the first time—very good for their character development. Some of my favorite characters from earlier books also return, which I was obviously psyched about. The political situation in the larger story is really heating up, and I’m intrigued to see where things go next, since now we're like halfway through the series. A-.

2024 book 77

 James S.A. Corey's Cibola Burn

I liked this one a lot more than the third one—it mainly involves Holden being sent to mediate between two groups of colonists on a new planet, and I just found the plot and most of the characters more engaging (two of the POV characters are minor characters from earlier books, on opposite sides of the conflict). I say “most of” the characters because the main villain is very one note and at a certain point I was wishing someone would shoot him so I didn’t have to read any more of his nonsense. On the plus side, I thought Naomi was way better developed in this one (maybe because we're seeing her through eyes that aren't Holden's?). Looking forward to the next one. A-.

2024 book 76

 James S.A. Corey's Abaddon's Gate

I didn’t like this as much as the second one, because all the new characters from that one that I was invested in aren’t in this one (Holden and his crew are in all of them I guess). There are some new POV characters: a guy who's chief security officer on a spaceship (he’s cool); Julie Mao's sister, working on a convoluted plan of revenge against Holden; and a lesbian Methodist minister, which meant a lot of talk about Christianity, which is not my bag. Things do pick up in the second half once all the plotlines come together, and it does get action-packed, but I do hope all these pastors don’t come back. B+.

2024 book 75

 Rainbow Rowell’s Slow Dance

It’s my birthday, and as a birthday treat I read this ARC! I love the way Rowell writes characters and feelings and characters talking about feelings and I knew this wouldn’t disappoint. And it didn’t! Her first adult novel in years is sort of a second chance romance, focusing on newly divorced Shiloh and her high school best friend Cary, who meet for the first time in years at a wedding. And the story flashes back and forth between their high school years, and the adult years they spent apart, and their college years, and them in the now (well, 2006) as they try and figure their shit out. And I do love a book where nice people figure their shit out. Very relatable and vividly drawn characters, as Rowell does so well. So satisfying. A.

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

(I tagged this as LGBTQ because Shiloh is queer, but this is an m/f romance.)

2024 book 74

 James S.A. Corey's Caliban's War

Ok, I did like this one way more, and there were way better lady characters, as I was told. (One is a Martian Marine, the other a powerful politician from Earth, and I love them.) The plot, such as it is, kicks off when a scientist's daughter is kidnapped by nefarious scientists who are tied to the nefarious stuff from book one, and the Rocinante crew are on board (lol) to help get her back, but of course there are wars and politics and PTSD and more to deal with. Plus a baller ending that makes me eager for book three (except I’m taking a quick break before I come back to these!). A-.

2024 book 73

 James S.A. Corey's Leviathan Wakes

I was thinking about starting the Expanse tv show, but I am exactly the kind of person who wants to read the books first, so here we go! There is a LOT going on in this first one, but it mainly involves two characters: the first is a washed-up cop looking for a missing woman (the reader knows nothing good has happened to her), which leads him into a much bigger mystery; the second is an XO on a water hauling spaceship who also gets drawn into the bigger mystery after witnessing several weird attacks on spaceships, and he's just trying to keep his remaining crew alive, but also has started a war? The pace picks up a lot once these characters collide, and there are a lot of surprises for sure. It was still a bit slow and no comment on the women characters (I hear this improves in later books and look forward to finding out). B+.