Katherine Addison’s The Tomb of Dragons
Hooray for a new book about Thara Celehar and his investigations, large and small! And more importantly, his friendships. Not to mention the titular dragons. I was also very pleased to see some characters from The Goblin Emperor appear. Everything about this was great and I really hope Addison revisits this world/these characters. A.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in March.
Katherine Addison's The Grief of Stones
I forgot that the plot of this one has some fairly grim stuff going on, as our investigator tackles a murdered marquise and a fishy school for girls. I do really like the focus on his mental health/spirituality, and the friendships he's building. So not the most fun read, but still a good one.
Katherine Addison's The Witness for the Dead
Back on my Katherine Addison bullshit, since the third book in this trilogy comes out soon! This series focuses on a secondary character from The Goblin Emperor, whose calling is to basically solve mysteries and crimes involving the dead, since he can speak to them. Addison plots this first one really well—there’s an overarching mystery involving the death of an opera singer, but lots of other interesting things pop up along the way. Also just really humane characters, which I for one really need right now.
J. Winifred Butterworth's A Bloomy Head
Thank you to Olivia Waite for reviewing this in the NYT, bc I’m not sure I’d have ever found out about it otherwise, and it’s exactly the sort of book I love. It’s a historical romance between a young widow/cheese maker and the (trans) army doctor her brother brings home from war, as she nurses him back to health. But also, it’s a mystery—what’s with all these beheaded bodies? And also, the widow has a million siblings, who each have their own drama going on (and I sincerely hope for a book about each of them). Really great characters and a satisfying story. I loved the narrative voice here, I own another book by this author under a different pen name (it also involves cheese) and I will be bumping that up my list. A.
Katherine Addison's The Orb of Cairado
New novella set in the world of The Goblin Emperor! This one involves a scholar who was ousted from the university for a theft he did not commit. When his best friend—the pilot of the airship from TGE—dies, he ends up on an unexpected adventure, and may help solve a murder. Solid story and cool characters, I also enjoyed the academic politics at play. A-.
Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor
A new novella set in this world just came out, which was a perfect excuse to reread a book I always find satisfying. It’s the story of a half-elf/half-goblin prince, raised in isolation, who suddenly becomes emperor when his father and older brothers die in an airship crash. Lots of learning to lead, finding allies and friends and family, lots of hope.
Nisi Shawl's Making Amends
This was an interesting sci-fi story set in the far future involving the establishment of a prison planet, but it didn’t totally work for me. It’s really a set of stories, so it’s a bit disjointed, and it’s weirdly horny, which just isn’t my thing. I thought the last few stories were the strongest, and the communities and identities and discoveries were really cool. I actually wish there were a few more stories centered on those characters/societies, I would have loved more exploration of that. B/B+.
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Content warning for rape.
Deanna Raybourn's Kills Well With Others
I don't know that Killers of a Certain Age needed a sequel, but I liked the characters and was happy to see them again. The plot here isn’t as a strong, though, and the flashbacks felt like a retread of the first book (I also would prefer not have to read about Nazis in my fun lady spy books). It just kind of dragged for me. I did enjoy the relationships between the characters, though, and the end was very fun. B/B+.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in March.
Allegra Goodman's Isola
Goodman's latest is totally engrossing, the story of a wealthy orphan girl growing up in 1500s France, with occasional visits from her clearly sketchy guardian. Eventually he plans to lead a journey to New France (Canada lol) and drags her with him. But when she falls in love with his secretary, he punishes them by leaving them stranded on a deserted island. (That all is in the description but doesn’t happen till halfway through—everything before that is just as interesting though.) I love reading survival stories from the comfort of my couch and this was a compelling one, and it turns out to be based on a true story!!!! Parts of it reminded me of The Vaster Wilds but it’s less grim (comparatively). Gonna give this an A.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on February 4th.
Gayle Forman's After Life
I was intrigued by the premise of this—it’s about a teenage girl who comes home from school, only to discover she’s been dead for seven years, and how her death has affected everyone she cared about (and other interesting characters). It reminded me of that tv show Les Revenants. I did like this but I kind of wished it had gone deeper? I was here for the cool lesbian sister and the teacher characters though. A-.
Emily Tesh's The Incandescent
Usually I try and wait a little closer to release date to read an ARC, but a) Tesh's Some Desperate Glory was one of my favorites of 2023, and b) lots of people are talking about this/reading it, and I didn't want to wait! Also, like, times are tough, let me read a book about queer ladies who work at a magic school. And I enjoyed this a lot! The main character is the Head of Magic at a British boarding school, and she has a sort of enemies-to-lovers thing with the woman who is basically the head of magical security. They fight demons together!! I did think the middle sagged a little—like, please stop being STUPID—but I loved how things wrapped up and adored these characters. Very satisfying read. A/A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in May.
Jane Austen's Persuasion
Another good site action for today as Austen requires a little more focus than some other books (for me, anyway). This is a great example of why I hate modern Austen retellings—they always miss how FUNNY she is. The narrative voice in this is hilarious and judgy. It’s awesome.
Naomi Kritzer's Liberty's Daughter
Today is for rereading favorite books about people trying to make the world a better place. This one involves a teenager in a near-future world, living in a weird libertarian community that’s hundreds of miles out to sea. She ends up getting caught up in politics/class struggles and having some adventures along the way. Perfect distraction.
Anne Tyler's Three Days in June
I always enjoy an Anne Tyler book but this one was so sweet! It’s about a cranky-ish 60-something woman and starts in the day before her daughter's wedding, when she’s having job issues, and then her ex-husband shows up to crash at her place with a cat he’s fostering. Like, lol. It’s not all madcap zaniness though, as she reflects on her relationships and what she wants out of life. I was here for the cat though. A/A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in February.
Sarah Beth Durst's The Spellshop
This was cute. It’s about a librarian in an imperial city that’s currently under revolt, and the library is on fire, so she and her assistant (a sentient plant) flee—with five crates of spellbooks, to keep the, from burning. They end up in the cottage where she was born and eventually start doing magic to help the dying island, even though it’s illegal. There’s also a hot and helpful neighbor with a herd of merhorses and a lot of friendly townspeople. The plot was kind of eh for me—trying to manufacture conflict in a cozy fantasy romance is hard—and though I agreed with the political sentiments, they felt shoehorned in, but I liked all the parts with magic and friendship. B+.
Agatha Christie's Lord Edgeware Dies
I just wanted to read a classic mystery but Agatha Christie did me dirty again. First of all, every character in this book is horribly and casually antisemitic, including Poirot. Second of all, one of the characters uses two racial slurs (including the n-word) for absolutely no reason. The mystery is fine but like YIKES. B.
Molly O’Neill’s Greenteeth
Cool story about a lake creature/fairy who is chilling when the villagers throw a witch into her home! Rude! Soon the two are on a quest, accompanied by a goblin merchant, to defeat a great evil. This was blurbed by T.Kingfisher and it does have some of those fairytale vibes, though the tone is a little different. This was slow at points—I kept waiting for Chekhov’s sword to come into play—but was overall entertaining and I really enjoyed the protagonist. A/A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in February.
Olivia Waite's Murder by Memory
I am the target audience for this book, which is a cozy sci-fi murder mystery featuring a lesbian aunt/detective who knits, on board a sentient spaceship! I have enjoyed the romances I’ve read by Waite, so was psyched to see her writing something in a genre I like even more (there is no romance in this one, though a hint that one might develop in later books in the series). Anyway, things start with our detective waking up in someone else's body, and that body may have been involved in a MURDER! This perfectly maps a classic Golden Age mystery onto science fiction and I loved it. My only complaint is that it's a novella and I did wish there was more to it! But so fun, I can’t wait for more. A/A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in March.
Naomi Novik's The Golden Enclaves
I haven’t read this since it was first released, and though I remembered all the major plot points, there were still so many good bits to rediscover. Plus the first time I read it, I was kind of rushing to see what would happen, and I wasn’t confused by the ending this time, haha. Really satisfying and very engrossing series, I need more books like this.
Naomi Novik's The Last Graduate
Ugh, I do love this book, everything that’s great about the first one (friendships and alliances, grumpy heroine, etc) is amped up here, and I’m crying from NICENESS at parts! And it still has one of the best cliffhanger endings ever.
Naomi Novik's A Deadly Education
I have a zillion news books and arcs that I’m excited to read, but also I’m depressed so I’m rereading a favorite series instead. Shrug emoji. I love books where people build community and makes friends and alliances, and also I love a grumpy but soft-hearted heroine. This book actually made me feel better!!
Kaveh Akbar's Martyr!
So Christina started this and told me she was enjoying it, and since I wanted to read something more literary after a slightly silly vampire book, I thought I’d try it—the description made it seem so cool and it was so so many best-of lists. But it’s about a depressed literary guy and it’s kind of slow. I’m not particularly interested in books about sad literary guys contemplating mortality. But occasionally the POV switches to more interesting characters, particularly his mother, and then things start getting good. I did end up liking this, but it definitely made me more depressed than I already was. A-/B+.
Katherine Villyard's Immortal Gifts
Mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, a cool Jewish vampire dude who loves cats (and has a Wiccan veterinarian wife). On the other, it kind of implies that much of the world's antisemitism, including the Holocaust and our current neo-Nazi nightmare, is due to one ancient and crazed antisemitic vampire. I also wish this has been edited a little bit more—a couple times things are repeated, and I think some of the Judaism 101 could have been cut back (do we need to be defining latkes or chuppahs?). And the protagonist makes some truly bizarre choices. Yet I kept reading because I liked the characters' relationships, and I liked the sort of philosophical discussions of being Jewish and being a vampire. The end was melodramatic, but also hilarious and sweet? Y’all, I don’t even know. B+?
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in February.
Sharon Lynn Fisher's Grimm Curiosities
I saw people talking about this on Bluesky and it sounded cute, but there is a LOT going on. It's set in Victorian England, and the romance is between a young woman who is trying to run her family's antique shop after the death of her father, and the young man whose father is the local baron. They're brought together because her mother and his sister both are suffering the same probably-magical ailment. Also, there are some mysterious books that another wealthy young man is trying to buy. ALSO, there are ghosts AND other mysterious things revealed along the way. Also, there are legit fears for her reputation since it is the 1850s. I will say whenever I was reading about the characters and their feelings, I was rooting for them, but then some other character would be like "you're in LOVE with her!" and I'd remember this whole book takes place over like a week, and then would feel weird about the romance. The second half dragged a lot for me, and the end was extremely silly. Not really my jam, but if the author writes a book about the secret lesbian side characters, I might read it. Lol. B.
Linda Holmes' Back After This
Hooray for a new Linda Holmes book! This one involves a podcast producer (obviously something Holmes knows a lot about) who /finally/ gets a chance to host her own show, except the show is gonna be about her taking advice from a dating coach and going in twenty blind dates. Complicating matters is a meet-cute with a cute guy chasing after a dog, and then she keeps running into the guy. (I loved this dog!!) The protagonist is occasionally frustrating and I think Holmes did a better job fleshing out the secondary characters in her previous books, but this was still a very fun read. A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in February.
Rachel Neumeier’s Silver Circle: Shattered Skies
Solid conclusion to this series. This wasn’t my favorite series by Neumeier—I think it was just a little too dark/gross at times—but I always enjoy her characters and worldbuilding and emphasis on diplomacy and good leadership. A-.
Rachel Neumeier’s Silver Circle: Rising Winds
This suffers a little from being the second book in a trilogy—there are some cool moments and reveals, but there is also a lot of setting things up for the big finale. There’s also a lot going on and a lot of POV characters, so by the time it gets back around to say, Ethan, it’s easy to forget what’s been happening. But I have faith that book three will be satisfying! A-/B+.
Rachel Neumeier’s Silver Circle: Scattered Sparks
Apparently when Neumeier went to write the conclusion to the Black Dog series, there was so much going on that it turned into three books. And this one is a solid first volume—lots of attacks are being directed toward our black dogs, and they have to figure out how to survive—and take down the witch who’s gunning for them. Good pacing here and I am invested in these characters at this point. I’m also glad I read all the novellas, I think a reader would be very confused if they didn’t. A-.
