2026 book 218

 Molly Harper’s A Cute Little Murder

VERY fun story involving a woman who was the sidekick in a mystery-solving-teen vlogging duo. Now she needs money, so when her now-television-star friend wants her to come help solve a cold case for a new program, she’s on board. Lots of fun characters, I did think the cold case mystery solving was more interesting than the modern day mystery, but this story manages to balance everything (including new friendships and romance!) really well. I LOVED Lainey and hope this is the start of a series. A.

2026 book 217

 Julie Orringer's Luna, Phoenix, Queen

I really like Julie Orringer and her new one was getting great reviews, but I had a hard time getting into it at first--it's about a woman with early-onset Alzheimer's, and the first section is from the POV of her husband who's a) professionally jealous of her, b) finds the secret novel she was writing, c) realizes from the novel that she's been having a long time affair with her best friend (a woman), and d) rewrites the novel, publishes it, and receives great acclaim. Also he's confessing all of this to a badly burned dog (the dog becomes important to the story and I love her!). Anyway, I don't like stories about people stealing work and I'm impatient with whiny old literary men, so I did put this down for a few days. Luckily we get other POVs pretty soon, and it got much more interesting to me. This ended up being a BEAUTIFUL book. Beautiful and sad and hopeful. I should not have doubted. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now. 

2026 book 216

 Kathy Miner’s The Journey Is Our Home

So this series ended up being pretty compelling even as parts of it annoyed me (it was written over ten years ago but there are still way too many Harry Potter references). It was fine. Happy endings and heteronormative pairings (ok there is one gay couple) for all. B+.

2026 book 215

 Kathy Miner’s Where The Light Enters

The second book in this trilogy was fine, there is still a lot of rape but mostly off page. I was actually pretty into it until the very end, mainly because I dislike the youth pastor character so much. Maybe he’ll get it together in the third book but I doubt it. B+.

2026 book 214

 Kathy Miner’s What Survives Of Us

I actually had to put this book down for a while and wasn’t planning on picking it back up, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so here we are. Anyway, this book involves a plague that kills 99 percent of humanity, and the survivors are changed. Warning that this book is VERY RAPEY, two of the POV characters are young women captured by DIFFERENT militaristic groups of men and treated horribly, it’s very graphic. I much preferred the sections with the mom who can communicate with animals and even the annoying youth pastor. I still want to know what happens next so I guess I’m reading this whole trilogy. B+?

2026 book 213

Alexandra Rowland’s Yield Under Great Persuasion 

I had started a book that I thought was going to be hopeful but was actually super upsetting, and rereading this book was the perfect cure. I love books where gods and goddesses meddle with people to help them get their acts together! This new edition actually an expanded edition from when it first came out, there are a couple of bonus chapters. I’m not sure they’re necessary but they were nice nonetheless! This is a really sweet (and mildly horny) book that did make me tear up a couple times. Maybe I need to do a big Rowland reread?

2026 book 212

 Jeannelle M. Ferreira’s Ochre, Quartz, Or Ivy

I’m going to be honest, I did not understand what was happening in this book at all, but I enjoyed the vibes. There’s a Selkie married to the nonbinary Pendragon (this is Arthurian I guess?), they have a son, there’s magic and ghosts and time travel? Or alternate versions of the characters throughout time?? No clue!!! Seriously, none. It was interesting though. B+. 

2026 book 211

 Barbara Trapido's Brother of the More Famous Jack

This novel got reissued by NYRB this week, which made me want to reread it! I've read it a couple times before and always remember that I really like it, but remember exactly nothing else about it (this is one of the books that I'd actually completely forgotten I'd even read before until I went to track it--thank goodness for book tracking apps I guess!)--maybe this time it will stick. Anyway, it's the story of a young middle-class English girl in the 1960s who falls for her philosophy professor's big eccentric/bohemian family. First loves, seconds loves, etc, with a great sense of humor. Weirdly reminds me of Nancy Mitford??? 

2026 book 210

 AG Slatter’s Fitcher’s Bird

SO I thought this was another book set in Slatter’s Sourdough world, full of magic and dark fairy tales, and I was well into it before I realized I was reading a straight up modern horror novel with a serial killer. OOPS. Not my favorite type of story! I did actually like this though—it’s about the oldest sister of three, and her younger sisters go missing, and it actually DOES have dark fairy tale vibes, lots of Bluebeard action going on. Great ending. A-.

2026 book 209

 Sarah Rees Brennan’s In Other Lands

Look, sometimes someone on Bluesky goes into rhapsodies about a book and I’m like, oh yeah I fucking love that book, let’s reread it! And I actually forgot how MUCH I loved this book??? It’s SO FUNNY AND GOOD AND DELIGHTFUL IN EVERY WAY, as grumpy awkward bisexual teen Elliot does the whole portal fantasy magic military school thing, falling for an elf maiden warrior (elf ladies are warriors and love gentle nerdy men) and very begrudgingly making friends with the school’s golden boy. Elliot is a little asshole and I love him. I’m realizing that one of the reasons I love the Scholomance books is the similar narrative voice/themes. I need to reread this as much as I do those, this one makes me cackle out loud. SO GOOD.

2026 book 208

 Tanya Huff’s Saved by the Spell

Honestly, I’ll be psyched if novels about queer lady teachers at magic schools become the next big thing. This one features a Canadian magic school and is more in the funny/cozy vein, very enjoyable. The story here involves a student who exhibits all the signs of being a Hero—she saves ppl from danger, helps others, has two sidekicks (one can turn into a lil elephant!!!!), etc—which is great and all, except that the rise of a Hero means the rise of a Villain, ie, lots of danger and lots of classroom disruptions! (It is extremely obvious from the beginning who the villain is and very frustrating that no one even suspects, even though this does have an explanation. This is the exact problem I had with The Incandescent, the OTHER book about teachers at a magic boarding school.) I did end up liking this a lot, really great characters and the ending ruled, I hope there will be a sequel of some sort! A-.

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

2026 book 207

 Riley Bauer’s Worth the Trade

After reading a series of slow historical fantasy novels, obviously I needed to read a smutty gay hockey novel as a palate cleanser! This is the start of a new series in Bauer’s hockey-verse, where the Finnish guy with the last kitten from the previous series gets traded to a new team. Yes, this series also has cats! (I so related to the cat screaming in his carrier for a whole longass drive to a new home, the worst.) Anyway, the traded guy is staying with a new teammate, who’s the brother of a former teammate, and they fall for each other. (At least one of the other books in the previous series had the same roommate premise, minus the brothers, but whatever.) Instead of group chats about hockey romances, this team watches old teleromans (French telenovelas???) to improve the Finnish guy’s French, which is pretty funny. The romance has the usual annoying communication issues, just once I wish the third act conflict would be something else! I also wish these books had one more pass with a proof-reader, bc once again I saw a repeated cat sentence (obviously I pay the most attention to the cats) as well as an incorrect apostrophe. These books are well-written otherwise! I will keep reading smutty hockey books I guess! They’re fun. I don’t even like smut but there’s cats! A-/B+.

2026 book 206

 Helene Wecker’s The Gates of Midnight

I finished this thinking like, well, this was fine, and then I got to the author’s note and was like, a nice person wrote this and now I feel bad for not being super into it? It wraps up the story of the Golem and the Jinni pretty well but leaves it open if she wants to write more in this world. Like I said, I just wasn’t super into it! I was impatient for all the story strands to come together. I do enjoy the characters though. B+.

2026 book 205

 Helene Wecker’s The Hidden Palace

I really didn’t remember a thing about this book, maybe because there is a LOT going on in it (including a cameo from Lawrence of Arabia, lol)? It does make things move much more quickly than the first one, but I wasn’t really invested in it. Still a pleasant read though! We’ll see how the new one is. A-/B+.

2026 book 204

 Helene Wecker’s The Golem and the Jinni

Rereading this because a new one in this series recently came out—and I remembered that I really liked this, but yall, I REALLY liked this!! I didn’t remember much besides the golem (a woman, created to be a wife) and the jinni (freed after a thousand years trapped in a jar) exploring 1890s New York, so most of the plot was a surprise. Really interesting and moving and occasionally tense. It is a little slow at parts but all comes together in a great way. I don’t remember the second book at all and am excited to revisit that and read the new one! A/A-.

2026 book 203

 Jessica George's Love By the Book

Despite its title, this is not a romance novel! It's a friendship novel! And mildly meta, as one of the characters, a thirtysomething queer Black woman in London, has written a bestselling novel about the friendship between four women--based on her own friend group, which is now drifting apart due to moves, families, etc--and is struggling to write a second. Her friend interest (friend version of love interest? I dunno) is a Black woman who has never really sought out friends before, as she was super close to her sister, until a dramatic falling out. And then the author starts writing about the two of them. This was super engaging, perhaps a little too over the top, but I’m definitely adding it to the list for my book club. A-. 

2026 book 202

 Virginia Black’s No Shelter But the Stars

I’m not really into enemies-to-lovers as a plot, but it kind of works here because these two women are ACTUAL enemies, the only survivors of a spaceship battle, stranded on a fairly inhospitable moon, and they have to work together to survive. I did think this bogged down a bit in the middle, and the political stuff was pretty basic, but it was a solid romance! I’d read more stories set in this world. B+.