2022 book 37

 Natasha Pulley's The Kingdoms

I’m not sure why it took me so long to get around to this- it’s one of those books I kept checking out from the library and then getting distracted by other things, even though it had good reviews and I like the author. But hey, I finally read it, and it was good! It centers on a man who gets off a train in a world where Napoleon won his wars and there’s a big French empire in Europe, and he’s like, this isn’t right, but also I have total amnesia??? And it turns out a lot of people have weird amnesiac episodes, and his only clue is a postcard of a lighthouse. Anyway, pretty soon there are some time slips, and mysterious naval officers, and it’s all very compelling, if occasionally confusing. I did wish for slightly faster pacing, or at least for the big reveals to come a bit earlier, and I also wished the sister character was slightly better developed. But this was heartbreaking and joyful and romantic and awesome. A-.

2022 book 36

 Molly Gloss' Outside the Gates

I’ve never read anything by Gloss before, but I may have to investigate her other stuff, because this was pretty intriguing. It’s about a little boy who is cast out from his town bc he has a mysterious gift (HIS GIFT IS THE ABILITY TO BEFRIEND ANIMALS!!) and has to make his way out in the woods—but he’s not the first person to be cast out. (Not to sound ominous about it! Just the woods are full of scared people with cool gifts.) This has a hopeful sort of vibe, I just wanted there to be more of it! A-.

2022 book 35

 Erin Entrada Kelly's Lalani of the Distant Sea

I read a good review of this somewhere and at first I was pretty into it—the titular Lalani is a twelve year old girl living on an isolated island, where the mountain is deadly, there’s a mysterious beast, and it’s hard to eke out a living. Lalani loves stories and history and folklore, and I was into her journey! But this book is weirdly violent (mostly toward animals but not entirely), and the other main POV character, her best friend's nervous little brother, is a lot less interesting. I did like the end of this, but it was honestly way more depressing than I expected. B+.

2022 book 34

 Katharine Kerr's Days of Air and Darkness

I wasn’t very far into this book when I started writing a review, because I was so annoyed about several things! And dang if I didn’t have to delete all of my complaints, because Kerr turned it all around by the end! (I was especially pleased about two dudes kissing after an early scene that had real “no homo” vibes.)  I mean I am still losing a little bit of steam with this series; this was all battles and gross enemies and I really wasn't interested in some of the POV characters. Awesome dragon, though. B+.

2022 book 33

 Katharine Kerr’s Days of Blood and Fire

It’s starting to feel like a Stefon SNL skit up in here, because this book has EVERYTHING! There's elves and dwarves and humans and some other species of being! There’s spirit ghosts! There's little mostly invisible sprites and gnomes! There’s swords and sorcery and magic and mayhem! There's a siege and there’s a magical secret dwarf city! Now there’s even dragons in the mix! It rules. Small note that a young woman who seems to have an intellectual disability (but also has magic powers) is referred to several times as a “mooncalf” which feels like an uncool thing to say. A-/B+.

2022 book 32

Katharine Kerr’s A Time of Omens

I’ve reached the point in this series where what which character was doing in which book in which of their reincarnations has started to blur together, and only the most recent set piece is clear in my mind, so no plot summaries here. There’s definitely lots of action and riding around on horses and some cool new characters (I really love the characters in these books) and some cameos from some old characters, plus some dogs. I do hope we get flashbacks to Jill's research trip at some point, because I'm me, and I like scenes of people reading books even more than scenes of people riding around on horses. Another enjoyable volume, perfect escapism. A-.

2022 book 31

 Katharine Kerr’s A Time of Exile

The second set of books in the Deverry Cycle looks like it’ll be delving into Elven history and lore, and I am psyched! It starts off thirty years after the first series, though there are plenty of familiar faces (Jill and Rhodry are both still central characters). Most of the story in this one, though, is the backstory of the OTHER immortal old magician, which I was hoping would be revealed eventually. So I thoroughly enjoyed this volume. A/A-.

2022 book 30

 Katharine Kerr's The Dragon Revenant

This was a really satisfying conclusion to the first chunk of books in the Deverry series (there are four different series set in this world, plus one just starting up). Great characters, interesting action, no flashbacks to past lives (I have enjoyed those in earlier books but it was becoming a lot to keep track of) so things flowed a little better. And I really liked the way Jill's story wrapped up. I didn’t know if I’d keep going but I definitely plan to start the next book. A-.

2022 book 29

 Katharine Kerr's The Bristling Wood

I was super into the third Deverry book for the first chunk--the more modern storyline is interesting, and the flashback storyline finds Nevyn doing some interesting political stuff to bring peace to their war-torn country--but then comes a lengthy interlude where we meet a guy who can charm horses, and you're like, this is so cute, and then it turns out he can ALSO charm WOMEN, and brainwashes the main girl into running away with him and basically he makes her a sex slave. Now, to be fair to the book, this is treated as VERY WRONG AND BAD, it is definitely called rape, but it is still really stressful to read! And the rest of the book is no less stressful after that. I also had a little bit of a hard time remembering who all of the tertiary characters were but that wasn’t a huge deal. I dunno, B?

2022 book 28

 Katharine Kerr's Darkspell

So I am still interested in these characters/their world/their magic, but this second volume was more unpleasant than the first. We finally meet some of the evil sorcerer types hinted at in the first book, and they’re pretty vile (they can get power through lust and so there is a fair amount of rape, but only of dudes bc they don’t teach women their evil ways). The past life flashback section here was interesting, though also not particularly pleasant, as the main young woman pledges her life to a dark warrior goddess. Lots of riding around on horses and fighting battles, some more important than others. I breathed a sigh of relief every time a character got to take a bath! But we'll plow ahead. B.

2022 book 27

 Katharine Kerr's Daggerspell

Hooray, I found another giant fantasy series authored by a woman to get completely lost in! So this is an entertaining first volume, classic swords and sorcery stuff. It’s set in a Celtic-inspired world where souls reincarnate, and centers on a man who caused a tragedy four hundred years ago, and the gods are keeping him alive until he makes things right for the souls involved. The other POV character is a young girl who is the reincarnation of his lost love interest, but that never gets gross (he has to teach her magic for his mission to end and he often gives her “grandfatherly pats” on the head). I should note that the stuff that goes wrong in the past /does/ get gross (this was originally written in the 80s but incest was bad then too), so warning for that. Anyway, I don’t care about any of the romances, but the magic is cool, so let’s see how volume two goes. B+.

2022 book 26

 Rebecca Kauffman's Chorus

Kauffman is great and these big ensemble books, so no surprise that her latest, about a large Virginia farming family in the first half of the twentieth century, shines. The story bounces back and forth in time and each of the seven children and their father have assorted POV sections (I did get confused about the chronology a few times but it wasn’t really relevant to the meat of the story), kind of moving toward and away from the suicide of their mother. I got Jane Smiley vibes from this (particularly her Hundred Years trilogy). Really strong writing here, though I did wish for more character development from a few of the siblings. Still, excellent stuff. A/A-.

2022 book 25

 Rebecca Podos' From Dust, a Flame

Ok, now HERE is a book for which I am the target audience, as it is super queer AND steeped in Jewish folklore. Our protagonist is teenage Hannah, who's spent her childhood with her mother and older brother moving every few months. When she wakes up one morning with very weird eyes, and wakes up every morning after that with a new non-human feature, her mother vows to find help. But she doesn’t come back. Now it’s up to her and her brother to solve the mystery, find out their family history, and save the day—with the help of a pink haired girl who knows a lot about Jewish history (heart eye emoji). Great characters, great story, I really loved seeing my culture in this way. Parts of it toward the beginning were a little too Judaism 101 explainer for my taste, but not every reader is a giant Jewish nerd like I am, sooooo, shrug. I really enjoyed this. A.

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

I hope the ARC isn’t the final version, because there was a right to left issue with a crucial Hebrew word and the letters are reversed in the copy I have. 

2022 book 24

 Talia Hibbert's Get a Life, Chloe Brown

We wanted to read something on the lighter side for book club this month, and this series gets good reviews, so here we are. I can only read romance novels sporadically, especially hetero ones, because sometimes I find them too formulaic, all the same plot beats, lots of insert tab A into slot B (this book is very horny). Anyway, our heroine is a chronically ill black woman from a wealthy family (I did like her relationships with her relatives), our hero is her white building superintendent, an artist, who she enlists to help her with the bucket list she makes after a near death experience. There was a cat, so that adds some bonus points, but I would maybe rather have read a novel about her glamorous grandmother and her yoga instructor girlfriend? This was cute and I was rooting for the couple but also I didn’t totally buy it. A-/B+.

2022 book 23

 Justina Ireland's Ophie's Ghosts

Not sure how I missed that Justina Ireland wrote a book set in 1920s Pittsburgh, but you bet I grabbed it from the library as soon as I found out! Things actually start down in Georgia, where the titular Ophelia is awakened by her father and warned to grab her mother and run--only it turns out that it's actually her father's ghost, and the lynch mob that killed him is on their way to burn down the house. (The death and fire both happen off-page.) So now she and her mother are off to relatives in Pittsburgh, working for a rich old white lady, still dealing with racism, but now also dealing with all the ghosts Ophie can see. And eventually, solving a murder. The pacing was a little slow in the middle, but things pick up in a big way toward the end, and I loved the little tribute to the Hill District. Satisfying and lovely wrap-up. A-.

2022 book 22

 Rosemary Kirstein’s The Language of Power

The fourth book in this series is top notch, as our steerswoman reunites with old friends, makes new ones, has some adventures, encounters dragons, does research, etc. Again, great characters and really good pacing in this one. This ends in a way that is honestly pretty satisfying, though the author has been working on two more books for the last several years, and I do hope they’re released someday.

2022 book 21

 Rosemary Kirstein’s The Lost Steersman

I like the first half of this more than the second; the first finds out steerswoman in a small town, dealing with a poorly maintained archive and getting to know the locals. Lots of great new characters. But when demons start invading, she comes to some unpleasant truths. The second half is slower and sort of grim and sad. I mean it is still interesting, just not in a fun way?

2022 book 20

 Rosemary Kirstein's The Outskirter's Secret

The second Steerswoman book finds our Steerswoman and her lady warrior friend on a journey to uncover the source of the mysterious jewels, making friends with the local nomadic tribes and maybe uncovering a few more answers along the way. Normally I’m not super into fantasy novels where people are just walking around all the time, but Kirstein makes it pretty compelling. Really great characters and a fascinating story, for sure.

2022 book 19

 Rosemary Kirstein's The Steerswoman

What do you do when you have eight books checked out of the library? Start rereading an epic fantasy series instead, of course! I kept thinking TikTok broke my brain and I didn’t have the attention span for novels anymore, but I just reread this all in one sitting so clearly I can still hang with a good story. Anyway, it is the story of the titular steerswoman, part of a group of mostly women who are basically mobile librarians/encyclopedias, wandering around spreading information and learning new things. But when our heroine starts trying to learn about a weird piece of jewelry, she catches the attention of the wizards, who hoard their magical secrets and want to stop her investigation! This was just as good the second time, lots of adventure and friendship and it somehow even makes me interested in MATH.

2022 book 18

 Rachel Hartman's In the Serpent's Wake

Normally when a new book in a series by an author I love comes out, I'd reread its predecessor, but in this case, Tess of the Road deals pretty heavily with learning to process your trauma, and I just wasn't up for it. Luckily there is a lengthy sea shanty at the beginning of this one that serves as a recap! (I don't usually read lengthy poems in books, my eyes glaze over, but it was useful here.) Anyway, this story finds Tess on a scientific expedition to find a giant dragon (and hopefully help her non-giant dragon friend), with a side mission of spying on some colonization/war efforts on the way. As usual, Hartman does the unexpected, which means is the first book I was actually interested in the whole way through in quite a while. Now, I did occasionally wish things were slightly subtler, and a lot of this boils down to privileged people learning to sit down and shut up, but at least that’s a good message. Content warning for a lot of mentions of rapists. A-.