Sarah Wallace's Dear Bartleby
This was super sweet!!! No tragic backstories here!!! Just the mildly immature and rascally younger brother coming to stay in the country and learning to be a better person from the example of all the nice people around him. And assisting the Viscount with a magical competition to determine the next Royal Spellcaster--and falling for one of the candidates! All told to his journal, one of my favorite storytelling devices. Very pleasant and engaging. A/A-.
Sarah Wallace’s The Education of Pip
Not sure how to feel about this one! Pip comes up in the previous book—he’s friends with that protagonist—and his backstory is pretty dark—his abusive boyfriend pimped him out against his will—so of course he’s all cower-y when the nice rich people from the previous books adopt him and teach him magic (the viscount seems to be his love interest and even in this queer-normative fantasy world, I have no idea how that’s societally acceptable, not to mention there is a touch of the white knight). It was just a weird vibe for me. Like yeah I want this poor guy to be happy but this is beyond my suspension of disbelief. B/B+. (Gonna keep reading bc it looks like the next one is told as the diary of the troublesome younger brother and I am psyched for it.)
Sarah Wallace's One Good Turn
So the second book in this series is not epistolary (now I wonder if any of the others are) but I enjoyed it regardless! The protagonist is a young woman who was raised as a thief and wants to live an honest life, and ends up taking magic lessons from the Viscount from book one (who expressly stated he loves teaching people magic!). There's not a romance between them, though, which was nice (they're both gay). The focus in this one is really on friendship, which I appreciated. Very cute story, if a bit slight. A-/B+.
Sarah Wallace’s Letters to Half Moon Street
WHO is in the mood for an epistolary novel set in a magical and queer-normative version of Regency England? Me, always. This extremely cute book involves a shy and grumpy younger son being sent to London for business reasons, and he’s corresponding with his sister (who is talented at creating spells!) as he’s taken under the wing of a notorious rake who’s determined to show him the city. I love epistolary stories and this was super adorable!!!! I hope the next book centers his sister! A/A-.
Kate Elliott’s The Labyrinth Gate
I’m still occasionally reading the Elliott books I’ve missed—I think this is actually her first novel, published under the name Alis Rasmussen. It’s a cool take on a portal fantasy, as a newlywed couple find themselves transported to another world by some magical tarot cards. Adventures and archaeological digs and magic ensue! I loved all the characters here and I enjoyed this a lot, though I did side-eye the severe heteronormativity a bit (pregnancies for all!). I would have loved more of the bad-ass Aunt Letty and the court politics, but overall this was very fun. A-.
Sarah Anderson’s Fallow
Yall, I absolutely just read this in one sitting, and I loved it? It’s about a young woman who needs money and ends up taking a job where she’ll be a surrogate for the C-level women of a company (ostensibly for feminism but really so the company can keep the women working). She’s making a ton of money, living in luxury—and then when she’s on her final pregnancy, things go in an unexpected direction. I could quibble about a couple of character decisions but I don’t want to quibble! This book gave me a good and hopeful feeling! A!
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in September.
Patricia Wentworth's Touch and Go
I needed a break from all the post-apocalyptic books I've been reading, so here we are with a classic mystery! I think this was recommended in the New York Times--they've had a couple of classic mystery roundups recently--but I have read and enjoyed some of Wentworth's Miss Silver mysteries, so this seemed like a good bet. It involved a woman who takes a job as governess/companion to a teenage heiress--and then she realizes someone is targeting the girl. Pretty satisfying mystery even though I guessed all of it—Wentworth tells a good story and loves a happy ending. A-.
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Content warning for use of the n-word--did y'all know "eeny meeny" used to be racist????
Audrey Niffenegger's Life Out of Order
Normally I'd reread The Time Traveler's Wife before reading its long-awaited sequel, but I wasn't sure that a book I loved in my early 20s would hold up (and didn't want to find out, lol). I appreciate that Niffenegger is doing something different here and trying to write something relevant to our current times--lots of fascism, AI, and climate change woes--but it didn't always work for me and I wasn't always interested in Alba. I loved the sections about Clare, though, especially when she falls for a cool academic woman! I also appreciated that the author brings in trans and Black characters, though I did think some of their depictions were maybe not great? (Another issue is that while the Henry/Clare relationship is specifically called out as “squicky,” apparently it’s fine for an adult lady time traveler to get with a seventeen year old boy.) Anyway, some highs and lows, definitely an engaging read, new character Oliver is cool, the vision of the future is grim and yet optimistic, I have some lingering questions about the mechanics of everything but maybe sometimes it’s better to just let it be and enjoy it. B+.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on October 6th.
Emily St John Mandel’s Station Eleven
Saving the best for last! (I know she has two other early novels which do share a couple characters per a chart* at the back here, but they can’t top this so maybe I’ll reread them later.) The last time I read this was right after the miniseries came out, and I actually thought it kind of paled in comparison! But I loved it again this time. (The miniseries is great though and I actually might rewatch it!) It’s so funny which parts stick with you from read to read, and how the tv version muddled my memory a bit. But the book once again is all about the connections between people—I love the different ways the author explores this idea. And this is a gentler future than some of the others she’s imagined.
* I want yall to know that while rereading these books, I was taking copious notes on all the overlaps of character/phrase/etc and then discovered this lovely little graphic and was just like metaphorically crumpling up my paper and tossing it away.
Emily St John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility
I think I liked this more than the first time I read it, partially because I’m all immersed in the Emily St John Mandel Universe, and maybe partially bc it’s less stressful to read a pandemic novel in 2026. This one is more straight up sci-fi (several sections are set in far future moon colonies and there’s a bunch of time travel shenanigans) as a dude in investigating a weird anomaly and the people who encountered it (including some characters from The Glass Hotel). I want to research the inter-connectedness of these novels, though, because there are some interesting small things happening that I think must be deliberate.
Emily St John Mandel’s The Singer’s Gun
This is the other book that the author noted has overlapping characters with Exit Party (major ones this time) but it turns out I’ve never read it before???? I’ve been reading her since the early days so I’m not sure how I missed it. This is one of her earliest novels so it’s missing that sci-fi tinge, and at first I was like, is this a literary novel about a sad Brooklyn dude? But there are other characters keeping things going, plus a crime investigation AND a cat! I am actually not going to talk about the plot or characters because this is totally the backstory for Exit Party! Wild to bring these guys back after almost twenty years! I love the Emily St John Mandel Universe! A-.
Emily St John Mandel’s The Glass Hotel
Well, I’m doing it! I’m rereading all the Emily St John Mandel books to see all the connections! This was a great one to start with because it ends up sort of being all about the connections between people. (Also, the author’s note for Exit Party says there are some shared characters in this one—minor in both books but I do love finding those links.) Anyway, this involves the titular glass hotel, isolated in Canada, some of the people who have worked there, a Ponzi scheme, some of the people ruined by the Ponzi scheme, etc. Like I said, connections. I had remembered this being slow but I really didn’t find it so—it’s super readable, I never wanted to put it down.
Emily St John Mandel’s Exit Party
Mandel’s latest STRESSED ME OUT, but was also beautiful? She’s good at that. We start in Los Angeles 2031, where after a coup and a civil war, the former United States has splintered into a bunch of new countries and republics, controlled by militias. TOO REAL. Our main character is a woman who’s just gotten out of prison, and she and her roommate go to a party—where suddenly two dopplegangers of party guests appear, and their host vanishes. The story moves on from there to cover arms dealers, art heists, and other worlds. It’s totally engrossing, like I gulped this down. There is definitely some overlap with some of the other St John Mandel books and I might do a big reread of her backlist to see all the connections? And hope none of her visions of the future come to pass????? A????
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in September.
Marian Keyes’ My Favorite Mistake
Christina loved this, and I EXPECTED to love it, but I had some issues with the romance—namely, I didn’t buy the love interest. He’s a character in a couple of the other books but he and Anna have been secretly pining for one another for decades? What? I get that a lot of it happened in between books (and we have the usual dramatic reveals) but even as I enjoyed the writing, a part of me was like nahhhhh. I mean this was fine, I love all the characters in the Walsh books, I love the sister relationships, but I side-eyed this romance a bit. A-.
Marian Keyes' Again, Rachel
Turns out I also missed a new book in the Walsh series about Rachel, but she's such a big part of Anna's book that I didn't need to reread hers. There's a big time jump here, like ten or twelve years, and Rachel is back in Ireland, divorced, and working as a counselor at the recovery center she attended. Not to mention dealing with a fair amount of grief and denial. And that's when her ex comes to town for a funeral. The whole time I'm like "work it out you crazy kids [middle aged people]!!!" There is also a lot of great stuff with the addicts that Rachel works with. This isn't one of the funnier books in this series, but it's very moving and satisfying. A.
Marian Keyes' Anybody Out There
I somehow missed that there were a couple new books in Keyes' Walsh Family series, and Christina highly recommended the new one about Anna, so of course I wanted to reread the first book about Anna, forgetting how absolutely heartbreaking it is. She's dealing with major grief and pain after an accident while also balancing her job in PR for a cosmetics brand and shenanigans with her family and friends. Plus hilarious emails from various relatives back in Ireland. Really funny at times and so sad at others. I don't know anyone who does it like Keyes.
Seanan McGuire’s A Divided Duty
The twentieth (!!!) book in the Toby Daye series takes a break from the world-upending of the last few books to focus on the mystery of who kidnapped one of Toby’s band of teens, and how to rescue her. Satisfying all around and I enjoy how Toby is learning to use more aspects of her powers. The novella in this one involves squire Quentin dealing with emotional trauma from the whole parallel world thing from a few books ago. Good stuff with the sea witch in both stories, she might be my favorite character these days. A/A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in September.
Claudia Gray’s The Late Mrs Willoughby
I do wonder how this is on ongoing series—like wouldn’t you run out of Austen characters to kill off at a certain point? Anyway, this one involves the characters from Sense and Sensibility, there’s another death, Darcy jr and Girl Tilney are visiting for various reasons and start trying to solve things again. I like both these characters a lot, but I think this series is one that benefits from being read in between other things, and not all in a row (or maybe I was just a little bored after correctly calling the killer and waiting for ages for the reveal). I was also annoyed about romantic miscommunications but that can partially be chalked up to the time period. This was fine but I’m definitely taking a break for something else. B+.
Claudia Gray's The Murder of Mr Wickham
All right, trying out some Jane Austen fanfic here, lol. (There has been a lot of Pride and Prejudice discussion on Bluesky recently, and these were recommended--and I have enjoyed books by Gray before.) I can't tell if the audience for these is die-hard Austenites (who probably don't want fanfic!) or more casual fans like me, though it definitely assumes a lot of knowledge of her less-popular works that I only vaguely remember. Anyway, everyone is married blah blah, there's a house party at Emma's with all the main couples and some of their kids, and Darcy Jr and the daughter of the main character from Northanger Abbey have to solve a murder! I actually love murder mysteries set at British house parties, so ok! The victim is, of course, Mr Wickham, who seems to have invented Ponzi schemes and shows up unannounced for a spot of blackmail—and many of the guests have reason to hate him. Solid mystery, and I liked the main characters a lot (Darcy Jr seems to be on the autism spectrum). The solution is a little eh but I don’t think there was a way to make this really work. Entertaining anyway, I’ll definitely be picking up book 2. A-.
