2026 book 164

 Janice Hallett’s The Silent Appeal

Hallett’s latest returns to the acting troupe from her earlier The Appeal, which I only vaguely remember, so I definitely felt like I was missing some stuff at first. Once again lawyers are reading a bunch of emails and text messages, this time to see if they can figure out why a client may have pleaded guilty to a murder they didn’t commit. Some good twists here and I enjoy the format a lot, though at a certain point I’m was like, who is dead??? (The murder doesn’t happen until very late in the story.) Very entertaining, regardless. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 1st.

2026 book 163

 Sarah Wallace’s The Viscount Says Yes

I was really hoping we’d get some POV from the Viscount in this one, bc he has never felt like a real character to me and so it’s hard to be invested in his romance. It is great to see Pip going through his healing process (after being forced into prostitution by his abusive boyfriend/pimp, dark shit in a cozy series) but Bertie is just a perfect supportive happy rich guy with no nuance. If you’re into that sort of thing, awesome! I thought it was a teensy bit dull. Also like if you are trying to figure out what a magical monocle does, why would you not LOOK THROUGH IT, I thought yall were magical geniuses. It’s all very sweet though. B/B+.

2026 book 162

 Sarah Wallace’s The Spellmaster of Tutting-on-Cress

FINALLY a book for Gerry (the sister of various other characters, who’s been a big part of all the other books). This one changes format again, lots of POV characters, as basically every character plots to matchmake Gerry with the new young man in town (whose father has died and now he has seven adorable and hilarious siblings and a grieving stepmother in his life), who is very impressed by her career. Very funny and sweet. A-.

2026 book 161

 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-.

2026 book 160

 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.)

2026 book 159

 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+.

2026 book 158

 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-.

2026 book 157

 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-. 

2026 book 156

 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. 

2026 book 155

 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????

2026 book 154

 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.

2026 book 153

 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.

2026 book 152

 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. 

2026 book 151

 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-.

-2026 book 150

 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. 

2026 book 149

 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.

2026 book 148

 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-.

2026 book 147

 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. 

2026 book 146

 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.