Agatha Christie's Lord Edgeware Dies
I just wanted to read a classic mystery but Agatha Christie did me dirty again. First of all, every character in this book is horribly and casually antisemitic, including Poirot. Second of all, one of the characters uses two racial slurs (including the n-word) for absolutely no reason. The mystery is fine but like YIKES. B.
Molly O’Neill’s Greenteeth
Cool story about a lake creature/fairy who is chilling when the villagers throw a witch into her home! Rude! Soon the two are on a quest, accompanied by a goblin merchant, to defeat a great evil. This was blurbed by T.Kingfisher and it does have some of those fairytale vibes, though the tone is a little different. This was slow at points—I kept waiting for Chekhov’s sword to come into play—but was overall entertaining and I really enjoyed the protagonist. A/A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in February.
Olivia Waite's Murder by Memory
I am the target audience for this book, which is a cozy sci-fi murder mystery featuring a lesbian aunt/detective who knits, on board a sentient spaceship! I have enjoyed the romances I’ve read by Waite, so was psyched to see her writing something in a genre I like even more (there is no romance in this one, though a hint that one might develop in later books in the series). Anyway, things start with our detective waking up in someone else's body, and that body may have been involved in a MURDER! This perfectly maps a classic Golden Age mystery onto science fiction and I loved it. My only complaint is that it's a novella and I did wish there was more to it! But so fun, I can’t wait for more. A/A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in March.
Naomi Novik's The Golden Enclaves
I haven’t read this since it was first released, and though I remembered all the major plot points, there were still so many good bits to rediscover. Plus the first time I read it, I was kind of rushing to see what would happen, and I wasn’t confused by the ending this time, haha. Really satisfying and very engrossing series, I need more books like this.
Naomi Novik's The Last Graduate
Ugh, I do love this book, everything that’s great about the first one (friendships and alliances, grumpy heroine, etc) is amped up here, and I’m crying from NICENESS at parts! And it still has one of the best cliffhanger endings ever.
Naomi Novik's A Deadly Education
I have a zillion news books and arcs that I’m excited to read, but also I’m depressed so I’m rereading a favorite series instead. Shrug emoji. I love books where people build community and makes friends and alliances, and also I love a grumpy but soft-hearted heroine. This book actually made me feel better!!
Kaveh Akbar's Martyr!
So Christina started this and told me she was enjoying it, and since I wanted to read something more literary after a slightly silly vampire book, I thought I’d try it—the description made it seem so cool and it was so so many best-of lists. But it’s about a depressed literary guy and it’s kind of slow. I’m not particularly interested in books about sad literary guys contemplating mortality. But occasionally the POV switches to more interesting characters, particularly his mother, and then things start getting good. I did end up liking this, but it definitely made me more depressed than I already was. A-/B+.
Katherine Villyard's Immortal Gifts
Mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, a cool Jewish vampire dude who loves cats (and has a Wiccan veterinarian wife). On the other, it kind of implies that much of the world's antisemitism, including the Holocaust and our current neo-Nazi nightmare, is due to one ancient and crazed antisemitic vampire. I also wish this has been edited a little bit more—a couple times things are repeated, and I think some of the Judaism 101 could have been cut back (do we need to be defining latkes or chuppahs?). And the protagonist makes some truly bizarre choices. Yet I kept reading because I liked the characters' relationships, and I liked the sort of philosophical discussions of being Jewish and being a vampire. The end was melodramatic, but also hilarious and sweet? Y’all, I don’t even know. B+?
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in February.
Sharon Lynn Fisher's Grimm Curiosities
I saw people talking about this on Bluesky and it sounded cute, but there is a LOT going on. It's set in Victorian England, and the romance is between a young woman who is trying to run her family's antique shop after the death of her father, and the young man whose father is the local baron. They're brought together because her mother and his sister both are suffering the same probably-magical ailment. Also, there are some mysterious books that another wealthy young man is trying to buy. ALSO, there are ghosts AND other mysterious things revealed along the way. Also, there are legit fears for her reputation since it is the 1850s. I will say whenever I was reading about the characters and their feelings, I was rooting for them, but then some other character would be like "you're in LOVE with her!" and I'd remember this whole book takes place over like a week, and then would feel weird about the romance. The second half dragged a lot for me, and the end was extremely silly. Not really my jam, but if the author writes a book about the secret lesbian side characters, I might read it. Lol. B.
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-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in February.
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-.
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+.
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-.
Rachel Neumeier’s Black Dog Short Stories IV
Sold group of novellas—the first three involve various werewolf politics/diplomacy, and the last is more action-packed, as Keziah and Riss follow up on their previous mission involving witches (and which seems to be setting up the three part finale). A-.
Rachel Neumeier’s Black Dog Short Stories III
I had started this after Shadow Twin—the first novella is set during that book, but it's everything everyone was dealing with back some, featuring cool werewolf diplomacy—but the other three stories are set during or after Copper Mountain, so I held off on the rest. More cool character moments and chances for development for some of the secondary characters (the cast is pretty big at this point, so that’s nice). A-/B+.
Rachel Neumeier’s Copper Mountain
Good stuff in this volume as the crew prepares to fight a massive demon! Lots of team building and everyone helping each other. The end had some gross parts that I was not super into but otherwise a really enjoyable novel. A-.
Rachel Neumeier’s Shadow Twin
I wasn’t super into this at first, to the point where I put it down and was thinking of abandoning the series for being too dark/stressful (this one involves black witches and demons). But in the second half it had much more of what I like from Neumeier—action, plans, alliances, cleverness, and people depending on each other—and I ended up really enjoying it. So I will keep going! A-.
Rachel Neumeier’s Black Dog Short Stories II
Yikes. This was really unpleasant. The first story is Keziah and Amira's backstory and involves a lot of rape and abuse, and the second involves a band of werewolf serial killers/kidnappers/rapists. (The third one involves some hostages at a bank but is much more enjoyable; the fourth involves dark witches taking grandmas hostage and is not as bad as the first two but is still not super fun.) B/B-.
Rachel Neumeier’s Pure Magic
The third book in this series has A LOT going on—a brand new character, a boy who can do the special magic, but doesn’t know anything about the magical world, not to mention rival dog gangs and vampire attacks. Plus reckless teens and YA romance. I did like this—I always enjoy Neumeier’s characters—but there are so many tense action/battle scenes, which aren’t my fave. Like, we know the good guys will win, just get to it already. I wanted to see more homey scenes, like see them interact with the little girl they rescue. Maybe in the next set of stories. B+.
Rachel Neumeier’s Black Dog Short Stories
This book consists of four stories (not actually that short) featuring various characters from the Black Dog universe, which is a great way to have some character development/character relationship development. It looks like a few of the books in this series are stories like these, and I liked these four, so I’m on board. A-.
