2026 book 24

Martha Wells’ The Death of the Necromancer

Sometimes you see people discussing Wells’ Ile-Rien series and you’re like, I gotta reread those right now! This one isn’t part of the trilogy proper, but a lot of the characters come into play so it’s important backstory—and a fun story too, involving thieves and secret identities and prison escapes and revenge and also defeating a necromancer. Such good characters! I do think it would be stronger if it was a little tighter—some parts are slow—but I love this book anyway.

2026 book 23

 Tal Bauer's You and Me

I needed a palate cleanser after the previous book, and what's better than a queer romance about SPORTS DADS???? (As recommended by Captain Awkward and Claire Willet on Bluesky!) Their sons play on the high school football team together! This was so freaking adorable, just dads hanging out and drinking wine and cooking for each other and volunteering at football games and doting on their sons and LONGING FOR EACH OTHER in the cutest possible way. (I don’t mean to make it sound purely fluffy—the main character’s wife died, their marriage wasn’t great, and he doesn’t have a great relationship with their son when the story starts.) It was maybe a little too horny and had too much football for my own personal tastes, but I enjoyed this a LOT. A-.

2026 book 22

 T. Kingfisher’s Wolf Worm

I’m notoriously a wuss, but I was all, I can totally handle a creepy T. Kingfisher book about bugs!!! Y’all. I was wrong. This was a little slow to start so I was falsely confident, as the main character, a scientific illustrator in late 1800s North Carolina, takes a job with a scientist who studies insects, hears the local scary stories, wonders about her predecessor, etc. And then halfway through came a scene that creeped me out SO BAD. SOOOOOO BAAAAAD. And there was worse to come! My heart was literally pounding fast!!! It sucked!!!! I mean, top notch writing but also I do regret reading this because it will keep me up nights. What grade does that get? A-?

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

2026 book 21

 Meihan Boey's The Mystical Mr. Kay

Solid end to this trilogy--lots of funny moments and I love all the different goddesses popping up! I will say there's a late-ish reveal that ties this to book two that I thought was really unnecessary and kind of confusing. But still an enjoyable read. B/B+.

2026 book 20

 Meihan Boey’s The Enigmatic Madam Ingram

The second Miss Cassidy book involves unraveling a complicated supernatural mystery, but I didn't like it as much as the first. The story is pretty circular and I think takes too long to get where it’s going. I do still enjoy the characters (and am rooting for Mr Kay!) and love the use of mythology so will try the third, but this one was a B.

2026 book 19

 Meihan Boey’s The Formidable Miss Cassidy

This was a very cute and entertaining book about a woman who goes to be a governess in Singapore—luckily, she is more than equipped to deal with the various supernatural problems she runs into! I really enjoyed watching this story unfold and am psyched there are three to read, perfect escapism. A-.

2026 book 18

 Tayari Jones’ Kin

Hooray for a new Tayari Jones novel! This one centers on two Black girls who grow up as best friends in the 1950s and 50s, but head down different paths when one runs away to Memphis to find the mother who abandoned her, and the other heads to Spelman for college. I was super into this when I was reading, but the world is such a dumpster fire that it was sometimes hard for me to pick this up when I wanted to be reading something for escapism. But this was really a beautiful book and broke my heart in ways I wasn’t expecting. A.

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

2026 book 17

 Lily King's Heart the Lover

Rereading this for book club! It was one of my favorites of last year and absolutely holds up. (I think I cried more knowing what was coming.) Christina and I saw Lily King speak about this book a couple months ago and I’m looking forward to discussing the book and her comments with everyone!

2026 book 16

 Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Teacup Magic: The Second Collection 

Back on my adorable historical fantasy bullshit! And this one has LESBIANS!!! Yes!!!! Anyway, it’s another few novellas, the first focused on one of the secondary characters from the first collection, featuring jewel heists, stepmothers, and artists galore. The second focuses on the new Duchess of Storm dealing with ghosts—including her mother in law and her unpleasant first husband. The third has a bunch of queer pirates! And mermaids and kidnappings and bringing all sorts of characters from the other stories together and it’s absolutely delightful. I really enjoyed this series, just what I needed right now. A/A-.

2026 book 15

 Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Word for World is Forest

I’m still periodically getting to all the LeGuin books I’ve never read! I think I did start this one once and then went “ugh, this guy SUCKS” and put it down, bc we’re in the POV of a guy who LOVES being a colonizer (he likes to think of himself as a conquistador) and he super sucks! But we soon shift to the perspective of the indigenous people he wants to destroy and it’s much more interesting (they have a very cool society!), and we also get the POV of the earth anthropologist. Really lovely writing, of course, and a true bittersweet ending. A.

2026 book 14

 Ross Montgomery’s The Murder at World’s End

I do enjoy a locked room mystery, and this one has locked rooms galore, as the murder victim believes Halley’s Comet (in 1910) is going to poison the world and insists on all his guests and staff being totally shut in. The main character here is a brand new footman with a slightly seedy past, but of course he’s a good guy REALLY (🙄), who gets enlisted to help solve the murder by a mildly eccentric great-aunt. There are some funny parts and the mystery had an interesting solution, but the book didn’t quite work for me—it kept shifting from first to third person and the pacing was a little off. It looks like this might be the start of a series and I would maybe read another one? B/B+.

2026 book 13

 Allegra Goodman’s This Is Not About Us

Goodman’s latest is a series of stories about a messy and complicated Jewish family whose matriarchs are in a feud precipitated by an apple cake. There’s babies and divorces and bat mitzvahs and dog walkers and vegans and hilarious Seders. Some of the stories/characters are more compelling than others, and some that I liked sort of disappear, but on the whole I liked this a lot and read it in one sitting. RIYL Long Story Short on Netflix. A-.

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

2026 book 12

 Tansy Rayner Roberts' Teacup Magic: The First Collection

Jo Walton recommended this in her latest "Jo Walton Reads" column, and since I liked that Jane Austen with dragons book by this author, and was looking for something on the lighter/fluffier side to read, here we go! This is a collection of three novellas set in your typical Regency-with-magic world, but they're all very sweet and very funny (also seems to be a queer-normative world!). The first involves the main character's cousin, a Duke, being pursued by many women who want to be his Duchess--and then he's kidnapped! The second features politics, a secret society of powerful women, a murder, and of course some romance! And the third finds our protagonist on her honeymoon, caught up in a murder mystery, sort of, and all sorts of magical shenanigans (there is also a bunch of fun correspondence). Really delightful and funny, definitely will be reading volume two. A/A-.

2026 book 11

 Tana French's The Keeper

I've really been enjoying French's series about a Chicago cop who retires to a tiny town in Ireland--they're super atmospheric and I really enjoy the characters, especially now that Cal is more integrated into local society. This third one involves the death of a young woman in an apparent suicide, and soon the whole town is drawing battle lines, with our characters on one side and a very powerful man making their lives hell on the other. Y'all, this book was STRESSFUL. But it wrapped up nicely and the ending was honestly lovely. Gorgeous writing. A/A-.

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

2026 book 10

 Olivia Waite’s Nobody’s Baby 

The second Dorothy Gentleman mystery (about a detective on a spaceship!) involves a baby being left on her nephew’s doorstep, which is wild bc no one on the ship should be able to have babies! Where did this baby come from??? Perfect cozy mystery IN SPACE and I love it! More please!!! A.

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

2026 book 9

 Alexis Hall’s Audrey Lane Stirs the Pot

Alexis Hall can be hit or miss for me, but this one was pure hit!! I didn’t love the first in this series, and never read the second, but Christina said I’d love this one and I DID! The series is set on basically GBBO and the romance here involves a couple of lesbians—a cute, chubby journalist who’s a contestant on the show, and the show’s foul-mouthed, curt producer (grumpy/sunshine is my fave!). There is also a b-plot involving a 96 year old contestant on the show who worked in the house decades ago and had a secret lesbian affair with the daughter of the manor. Great balance between the stories, great characters, the romance had so many funny moments….just really a good time! A.

2026 book 8

 CM Waggoner’s The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigandale

I’ve enjoyed all of Waggoner’s books, but this one was *chef’s kiss*—a sweet and funny book about a witch who finds an abandoned baby on her doorstep, and when he turns 18 all the forest animals prophecy that he’s the long lost prince, and so he goes off to be king… good thing he has a very practical mother to advise him! This was just a perfect cozy fantasy book, highly recommended!! A.

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