2024 book 160

 H.G. Parry's The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door

Parry's The Magician's Daughter was one of my favorite books of 2023, so I was eagerly awaiting this one. I was mildly dubious about the plot, which involves a) a secret magical school and b) a scholarship girl seduced by the friendship of a group of wealthy, powerful students, and then it all goes wrong. I mean that is fine for a plot, but it's kind of a cliche? But once again Parry's writing drew me in, and the post-WWI setting made things interesting. I did think the ending was reminiscent of another somewhat recent fantasy book involving a magical school (being vague for spoiler reasons). I’m not sure how intentional all those similarities were? I did really enjoy reading this, though. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on October 22nd.

2024 book 159

 Agatha Christie's Crooked House

This was on a list of “best Christie books” that I saw one time, it was on sale for kindle today, and I’ve been jonesing for mysteries, so I decided to give Christie another try, hoping for a lack of racism (there is one ethnic slur towards a Greek man). Anyway, this doesn’t involve any of her famous detectives—the narrator is a young man who wants to marry a young woman, except her wealthy grandfather has just been murdered. Luckily his dad is the head of Scotland Yard, so he’s dispatched to hang out with his fiancée and see if he can get to the bottom of things. I DO love a mystery like this and this did have an interesting conclusion, though I didn’t really love the way things wrapped up (Christie is prone to having her characters moralize). Very entertaining though and just what I was in the mood for. A-.

2024 book 158

 Louise Erdrich's The Mighty Red

Erdrich is one of my favorite authors, but this was kind of a stressful read! It’s set in 2008-2009, and the economic downturn is affecting a lot of the characters, particularly one woman, whose husband embezzled the church reconstruction fund and secretly mortgaged her house before running off. But the main storyline involves her daughter's marriage to the son of the wealthy family who owns the local beet farm—a marriage no one is on board for, besides the groom and his mother. I will say there is a fairly sprawling cast of characters, plus some interludes about history and the environment, so every time I was frustrated with one chapter, the next usually turned things around. It was a slow start for me, but my halfway through I was hooked, and of course the ending was lovely. Erdrich does endings so well.  I think this is set in the same corner of Erdrich's literary universe as a few of her other books (particularly The Beet Queen)—someday I’ll reread them all and figure out how they all fit together. A-.

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

2024 book 157

 Margaret Tabor's Unity Penfold

What a JOY to go from reading a book where you’re like “I’m not really into this” to one where you’re like “I AM SUPER INTO THIS!!!” Originally published in 1980, and set in the 60s or 70s (I didn’t do the math), it’s the story of a woman (the eponymous Unity) who comes home from spending time with friends—except her house isn’t there. And apparently she, and her children, and her husband, don’t exist. Eventually the authorities determine she’s a missing woman named Sarah who's had a nervous breakdown, and she has to settle into Sarah's life while figuring out what’s real and what happened. It’s narrated in turns by her and by a musician she befriends, and it’s totally gripping. Apparently different versions of this novel were published, so this includes an added-on ending to one of the later editions, and it kind of weakened the story for me. But otherwise I loved this. A.

2024 book 156

 Nghi Vo's The City in Glass

This is about a demon woman who's been hanging out in a city for hundreds of years, shaping it and enjoying it (it seems like a nice city!). So when a team of angels comes and completely destroys it, she's pissed, and manages to curse one of the angels. Then she's dealing with grief, and trying to rebuild, and the angel is hanging around because he can't go home, and they start working together. But like it's kind of slow and there isn't much character development or really any plot developments until close to the end. I did end up really liking the end! It just didn’t grab me until then. B/B+.

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

2024 book 155

 Sherwood Smith's The Phoenix Feather: Dragon and Phoenix

Solid and satisfying ending to this series—it was so great to see all the characters come together finally! Action packed and great relationships (family, friendship, and romantic). My only complaint is that I feel like one of the antagonists needed more foreshadowing or something—it felt really tacked on. But a minor complaint in the scheme of things, I really enjoyed being caught up in this world (and am pleased there’s another series set there!). A-.

2024 book 154

 Sherwood Smith's The Phoenix Feather: Firebolt

Another totally engrossing volume! Court politics galore now that the missing price has returned, a prison break, all sorts of plots… plus Ari gets a teacher and a cool sword! I especially enjoyed Jion's sections this time around. I am really looking forward to seeing how this wraps up. A/A-.

2024 book 153

 Sherwood Smith's The Phoenix Feather: Redbark

This second volume primarily focuses on the younger two siblings--our protagonist, still in disguise as a boy, making her way as a "gallant wanderer" with her compatriots (some of whom are also hiding their identities), looking for a teacher, and having various adventures, and her older brother, held hostage as an artist at the imperial palace. (We do get a couple chapters of the oldest brother starting his army career.) As engrossing as the first one, and I can’t wait to see where things go next.

2024 book 152

 Sherwood Smith's The Phoenix Feather: Fledglings

Rachel Neumeier (an author I love) recommended this series at some point, and I was in the mood for a well-written and immersive fantasy story--which this was. The main character is a little girl in an Asian-inspired fantasy world, learning magic and healing, and secretly learning fighting alongside her older brothers. Her parents, though, are on the run from the Emperor--and a phoenix feather appeared at their wedding, indicating that one of their children is destined for greatness. (It’s obviously her, lol, especially once she follows her oldest brother to train as a warrior, for those of you who love girls pretending to be boys.) Both of her brothers get brief POV scenes as well. Anyway, exactly the kind of story I was in the mood for and I can’t wait to see what happens next! A/A-.

2024 book 151

 Sarah Pinsker's Haunt Sweet Home

This is about a young woman who takes a job as a PA on a reality show hosted by her cousin—a reality show that involves renovating haunted houses. Lolllllllll. But eventually it become clear that there is at least one actual ghost in the mix. Now, I am a GIANT wuss and I was fine with this book—it’s occasionally creepy but mostly just about a young woman trying to figure out her life (and also some fun behind the scenes reality tv stuff). I liked this a lot! A-.

2024 book 150

Moray Dalton's The Stretton Darknesse Mystery

Jo Walton mentioned this in one of her recent reading roundups, and I'm always looking for a new mystery to read. This involves a young man, a nefarious vicar, and the vicar's niece-by-marriage. The murder doesn't happen until like a third of a way in and the detective doesn't show up until the halfway mark. I enjoyed reading this but it wasn’t a particularly compelling mystery. B+.

2024 book 149

 Vivian Shaw's Bitter Waters

This is basically a cozy fantasy novella involving the major characters of the Greta Helsing series and what happens when they encounter a little girl who's been turned into a vampire. I believe the upcoming book in this series is the final one, and there are some hints at the end of this that there are some vampires up to nefarious activities that will have to be stopped, but no action or real tension in this volume. A-.

2024 book 148

 Vivian Shaw's Grave Importance 

This has a LOT going on—mysterious mummy ailments, angels from another world, art heists, even an apocalypse. Not to mention various romances. Still very fun, I enjoy these characters a lot. A-.

2024 book 147

 Vivian Shaw's Dreadful Company

I might have liked this one even more than the first one??? Maybe because I actually had read the books all the literary references are to, lol. Anyway, in this one, Greta is in Paris for a conference and gets kidnapped by vampires who hate one of her vampire pals, but there's a larger mystery going on that may collapse reality itself! Can her vampire friends and some new characters (a werewolf, a couple of psychopomps, and an inexperienced demon) track her down and stop terrible things from happening? Will she befriend adorable little creatures along the way? VERY fun story, I am digging this series big time. A.

2024 book 146

 Vivian Shaw's Strange Practice 

Several people whose tastes I trust mentioned this series recently, and it lived up to the hype! It centers on a woman in London who has taken over her father's medical practice, treating non-human people. But when a serial killer who's been killing people starts targeting the supernatural, she has to band together with a motley crew of vampires, demons, and museum curators to stop them. Very entertaining book and I look forward to the next one. A/A-.

2024 book 145

 Cat Rambo's Rumor Has It

This is the third book in Rambo's Disco Space Opera series, and it’s another fun sci-fi adventure! This time the crew is heading to a planet full of cool gardens to do some trade, do a pop-up restaurant, deal with interpersonal issues, and see an old friend. There’s nothing as MAJOR as the stuff from the last two books, but I enjoy these characters a lot and am looking forward to the next one. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 24th.

2022 book 144

 Alice Bell's Displeasure Island

As I hoped, Grave Expectations was the start of a series, and this one was just as fun! The protagonist and her new pals decide to take a trip to a new resort on an island in Ireland, except they aren’t supposed to be there and the only other guests are a Glass Onion-esque crew of old college friends who all kind of hate each other. And of course one of them ends up dead, and their inclination is to blame the weird girl who talks to herself (well, really to ghosts—not just her friend, but the many ghosts on the island, including pirates). So she decides to solve the case (while dealing with trauma and lots of feelings)! It's a pretty solid mystery and I quite enjoyed her sleuthing. This book is also pretty funny (I loved the skeleton who’s hanging out). Can’t wait for more. A/A-.

2024 book 143

 Frankie Barnet's Mood Swings

I absolutely read this because of the cover. It's fine, it starts off about several mildly annoying people in their early 20s living in a world like ours (based on all the pop culture references) but where all the animals started attacking people--until some billionaire created a machine that killed all the animals. In the back half one of the early 20s girls starts dating said billionaire, who’s working on a time machine. Interesting book but I wasn’t super into it. B.

Content warning for mentions of sexual assault and depictions of domestic violence.

2024 book 142

 C.M. Waggoner's The Village Library Demon Hunting Society

Ok, this was a SUPER fun take on cozy mysteries. So it centers on an aging librarian who is known for solving all the murders in her small town, but at a certain point she’s like, it’s very WEIRD that there are so many murders in my small town and that I always solve them! [This does always bug me in long running series! How does that one tiny town in the Louise Penny books have so many murders??] And she realizes demons are involved! Also, her cat is possessed by something claiming to be the ghost of his namesake, Lord Thomas Cromwell. I loved the narrative voice here and I especially loved the protagonist with her friends (including a young priest). This was very funny and entertaining, and the mystery plot worked really well for me. There is a hint at the end that this could be the start of a series, and I say YES PLEASE GIVE ME MORE!! A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 24th.