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+.

2026 book 201

 Leslye Penelope’s The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass

Interesting novel about a young Black woman whose twin sister disappeared when they were teens—and no one remembers but her. Her sister is even gone from their family photographs, and she lives in a world where her sister never existed. Now it’s a few years later and she’s determined to figure out what happened, with the help of a cute PI. This is all interspersed with transcripts of audio tapes from their father about his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam as well as the missing sister’s old computer diary/messages/emails. It’s pretty clear at a certain point that all this stuff is connected, though I was kind of amazed at the one big reveal (and mildly impatient waiting for another). I also wasn’t expecting this to turn into a Y2K action thriller? It definitely lost me toward the end as things became increasingly bonkers, but a fun concept. B+.

2026 book 200

 Richard Osman’s We Solve Murders

I probably should have read something Important for book 200, but a) I didn’t remember what number I was on, and b) I wanted to read a fun mystery! The second book in this series just came out, which reminded me I never read the first one. It’s very entertaining with great characters, centering on a woman who works for an elite protection agency (currently guarding an amazing author who’s pissed off a Russian oligarch), when suddenly former clients are getting killed and it’s clear she’s being framed. So she calls in her beloved father in law, a former cop turned PI in a small town in England (the kind of PI who finds lost dogs and checks insurance claims) to help figure out who the real killer is. He’s fine with helping, as long as he gets back in time for pub trivia. Very funny and action-packed, I has a couple quibbles with the end but enjoyed this a lot. A-.

2026 book 199

 Marissa Lingen’s A Dubious Clamor

What a GREAT book! Sometimes novellas feel rushed or incomplete but this is the perfect length for this story. Which involves a young woman who was once cursed to be a harpy, but the spell was broken and now she helps people with magical problems. When one of her friends comes to her with a magical sword that is trying to control him, she needs all of her friends and allies (and her harpy ex girlfriend) to save the day. Great friendships and family relationships here, and I loved the mentions of Gilbert and Sullivan. I am probably the target audience for a book like this but I ATE IT UP. Definitely will be keeping an eye out for more by Lingen. A.

2026 book 198

 Elizabeth Vaughan’s Warsong

The last book in this series was kind of a slog. Lots more POV sections should have livened things up, but the villains are especially unpleasant, and the story keeps referring to things I didn’t know about, as though I missed an entire book. (This annoyed me so much that I just stopped typing and spent a bunch of time reading all her other book descriptions and I’m pretty sure I have to read an entire other trilogy to see what I missed—no thanks.) There are also a lot of typos and other errors. I did enjoy all the non-evil characters (especially the middle aged gay exes!) but the pacing for this was just really weird. B.

2026 book 197

 Elizabeth Vaughan’s WarDance

The romance here is between Simus, the smart and funny Black warrior, here taking on more of a leadership role, and Snowfall, a Black warrior-priestess (the warrior-priests have largely been antagonists to this point, but she’s on board for the changes our characters want to make). The focus here is mainly on all the inter-tribal political stuff (plus some external political stuff AND magical threats as well), which is great, because although I really liked both these characters, I wasn’t super invested in their romance. It really feels like an afterthought, just occasionally awkwardly inserted in. I am looking forward to seeing how everything plays out in the final book! B+.

2026 book 196

 Elizabeth Vaughan’s Warcry

So it looks like the last three books in this series continue the ongoing storylines but each has a new couple/romance at the center, which is fine, but I was kind of eh about this couple—the former protagonist’s childhood friend (a dude) and the woman warrior who was healed in book one. He wants to be a serious/married couple! Her people rarely do that! Etc. There are a lot of court politics and intrigues though, which I love. There’s an attempted rape, which I could have done without. And there are some hints of mystical happenings that will presumably play a role in later books (and everyone is still trying to get the cute gay couple back together—why don’t THEY get a whole book). B+.

2026 book 195

 Elizabeth Vaughan’s Warlord

 Very entertaining third volume as our protagonist makes it to the center of the nomadic lands and has to prove herself. There is an awesome moment where she has to let various other warlords court her and one is a sexy lesbian—and she is kind of into it! (She’s from a society where queerness is not okay and the nomads have no issues with it, and it’s pretty clear that getting two specific dudes together is going to be a thing in later books and she’s gung-ho about it.) Anyway, very fun. A/A-.

2026 book 194

 Elizabeth Vaughan’s Warsworn

Interesting second volume of this series as they begin their journey to the Plains, but are waylaid by events beyond their control, exacerbating the inter-tribal tensions. Otherwise it’s mainly all character development, which I enjoy. I was very annoyed about one specific death. I am intrigued to see where things go in volume three. A-/B+.

2026 book 193

 Elizabeth Vaughan’s Warprize

T. Kingfisher mentioned this book in a recent Reddit AMA, and I do enjoy a fantasy romance that's the start of a six-book series! This involves a woman, the younger half-sister of the (sucky) king--she's trained as a healer and insists on also treating their prisoners of war--and then her brother's forces are defeated and the Warlord they've been fighting demands her as tribute for peace. I loved her learning about their culture/sharing hers, lots of fun characters there, and I like that there are some politics going on (politics/culture clashes are my FAVORITE). I also liked the romance! This is more of a fantasy novel with romance than a romance novel in a fantasy world, which I personally prefer. I did find some of the writing at the beginning to be clunky, and the villain doesn't feel super fleshed out, but I liked this a lot. Looking forward to book two! A-.