2024 book 92

 Sharon Shinn's Echo in Amethyst

Now this was interesting--the main character of this one is an echo who has become sentient (there were some hints in the first book that some echos had some awareness, but I don't think to this extent). It's also interesting because it actually starts before the events of the first book and kind of plays through all those from another perspective. But I didn’t really enjoy the romance—it’s not as well-developed as the ones in the other books. And the political stuff and the end were both somewhat unsatisfying. This one was more romance focused than plot focused, and I think that balance was better in the first two. B.

2024 book 91

 Sharon Shinn's Echo in Emerald

I liked this better than the first one—the plot is a lot stronger, I think. The protagonist here is a young woman, the illegitimate daughter of a noble, who has learned to disguise her echoes and make her own way in the world. And then she’s drawn into helping solve a murder and an assassination attempt (and obviously falls for the noble leading the investigation, who is a perfectly nice love interest, if not super compelling). The mystery helps carry things along and there are some interesting twists along the way. Looks like things are heading toward some serious political intrigue for book three! A-.

2024 book 90

 Sharon Shinn's Echoes in Onyx

I've been having a hard time getting into books lately, but luckily I had this unread Sharon Shinn trilogy saved for a rainy day (or a reading rut), since I always enjoy her writing and world-building. This is set in in a fantasy world where nobles sometimes have mysterious copies of themselves, and the main character is a young woman who becomes the lady's maid for a noblewoman with three such echoes. I thought this would be a fairly typical court politics story but soon enough there are clumsy attempts to cover up a murder AND secret lesbians. And of course the protagonist's love interest is investigating the murder. I actually really liked how this wrapped up, even though I was uncertain of that along the way. B+.

2024 book 89

 Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower

Yes, I have like a billion unread books on my kindle, but I wanted to reread this book! I didn’t really remember anything about it, except that it’s narrated by a god, telling its story to the local heir's aide (and narrating the humans dealing with Hamlet-esque political machinations). I love stories about gods and court politics! This one is particularly riveting, I love the narrative voice. My only complaint is that the end is somewhat abrupt/anti-climactic. Still, I love it, and I hope Leckie does more fantasy someday.

2024 book 88

 Coco Mellors' Blue Sisters

I do like books about sisters, and this one was great! It deals with how three very different women are floundering a year after the death of their fourth sister (how she died is revealed partway through and I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I did have a lot of thoughts about it as someone with endometriosis). All three are really compelling, and I was worried this was losing steam toward the end but I ended up really liking it. Definitely one for the book club list. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in September (but it's already out in the UK so I got confused and read it early, oops!).

2024 book 87

 Park Seolyeon's A Magical Girl Retires

Ok, this was really fun! It starts with a young woman planning to commit suicide bc of credit card debt, when she’s stopped and told she’s a magical girl! And not just any magical girl—the Magical Girl of Time, who has to help save the world… from climate change. Great characters and fun action here, I just wish this had been a little longer to kind of build up the second half more. But I liked this a lot. A-.

2024 book 86

 James S.A. Corey's Leviathan Falls

A weird and interesting conclusion to a weird and interesting series. Great characters as always, the plot was sometimes exhausting (which was the case for several of the books). I did appreciate how there was a sort of throughline for the whole series. But I’m ready for something lighter! A-/B+.

2024 book 85

 James S.A. Corey's Tiamat's Wrath

Ok, we're on book 8 of 9 and this was SO GOOD, WHOA, I’m not even going to try to do a plot summary because SO MUCH happens and it’s all really interesting and sad and cool! These characters are so good and I’m so intrigued to see how this series wraps up.