2025 book 4

 Linda Holmes' Back After This

Hooray for a new Linda Holmes book! This one involves a podcast producer (obviously something Holmes knows a lot about) who /finally/ gets a chance to host her own show, except the show is gonna be about her taking advice from a dating coach and going in twenty blind dates. Complicating matters is a meet-cute with a cute guy chasing after a dog, and then she keeps running into the guy. (I loved this dog!!) The protagonist is occasionally frustrating and I think Holmes did a better job fleshing out the secondary characters in her previous books, but this was still a very fun read. A-.

__

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

2025 book 3

 Rachel Neumeier’s Silver Circle: Shattered Skies

Solid conclusion to this series. This wasn’t my favorite series by Neumeier—I think it was just a little too dark/gross at times—but I always enjoy her characters and worldbuilding and emphasis on diplomacy and good leadership. A-.

2025 book 2

 Rachel Neumeier’s Silver Circle: Rising Winds

This suffers a little from being the second book in a trilogy—there are some cool moments and reveals, but there is also a lot of setting things up for the big finale. There’s also a lot going on and a lot of POV characters, so by the time it gets back around to say, Ethan, it’s easy to forget what’s been happening. But I have faith that book three will be satisfying! A-/B+.

2025 book 1

 Rachel Neumeier’s Silver Circle: Scattered Sparks

Apparently when Neumeier went to write the conclusion to the Black Dog series, there was so much going on that it turned into three books. And this one is a solid first volume—lots of attacks are being directed toward our black dogs, and they have to figure out how to survive—and take down the witch who’s gunning for them. Good pacing here and I am invested in these characters at this point. I’m also glad I read all the novellas, I think a reader would be very confused if they didn’t. A-.