Jessica

My vlog for this book can be found here.

Another winner from T Kingfisher! I'd recommend this book for fans of dark fairy tales. It's almost a cross between two of her previous books - “What Moves the Dead” and “Nettle and Bone.”

Cordelia and Hester are our main characters - the naïve “Goose Girl” from the fairy tale, and the kind of wise older woman that T Kingfisher writes so very well.

This is not an exact retelling of the story, more “inspired by” the Goose Girl. In this story, Cordelia has been controlled by her mother her entire life. Her mother is the Sorceress in the title of the book, and she is a real piece of work. She decides to enchant and marry a wealthy squire, who happens to have an unmarried sister, Hester. Hester is not ok with this plan, and begins to scheme to stop the wedding.

There's a lot more, and it's worth knowing that this is quite dark and has some moments of real horror. Even so, T Kingfisher cannot stop herself from making it quite heartwarming, and giving us some memorable and loveable side characters. I loved every minute of reading this and highly recommend it!

Unpopular opinion alert! I tried to get through this twice and failed (though I did make it to 60% before giving up this time.)

The Will of the Many has a very strong start. I really enjoyed meeting our main character and learning about the world. Unfortunately, the main character, Vis, was a bit too perfect. I didn't enjoy being in his head either. All this combined with the first person present tense made this feel like a YA fantasy to me, which unfortunately I was just not in the mood for. Lots of people loved this though, I know I am the outlier!

My video review can be found here.

My video review can be found here.

Honestly, I'm just sad that it took me so long to get to this one. ‘As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow' is a heartbreaking story about the love and loss that exists in the midst of war. Our main character is a pharmacy student in Syria who finds herself pressed into service as a surgeon due to the lack of medical staff in a war torn region. Through her eyes we witness the horrors of the war.

I really enjoyed having the perspective of someone in a hospital. It's different from the typical soldier or civilian perspective we get on war, and really drove home just how bad things were.

This was a solid 4 star read for me. I didn't connect to the romance, but other than that I loved the story and would highly recommend this book.

My video review can be found here.

You Should Be So Lucky has instantly shot to the top of my romance reads this year! I had low expectations - I haven't been feeling historical stories lately, and I'm definitely not a sports fan. But - this book completely got me! I finished it with tears and a smile on my face at 2 AM and I am not sorry for missing sleep.

Eddie and Mark were perfect together. Mark has tragedy in his past, and Eddie never pushed him past where he was able to go. This is a slow burn, and every bit of that time is earned by the characters slowly getting to know each other.

I also appreciated the historical detail, and how clear it was that it would not have been easy for these characters to be together in the time period. It felt realistic while still feeling hopeful and romantic. Highly recommended!

I liked this one? I think? This was a wild reading experience. First of all, I cant' believe that it was published in 2018 but managed to get so much correct about our actual response to a pandemic.

Loved the idea of zombies who are stuck in the patterns of their lives. Was it a subtle metaphor? No, but it worked for me.

It lost a star on the religious cult bits - Why does every post apocalyptic story have to have a religious cult? But otherwise I loved it and would highly recommend.

My video review can be found here.

I'm not saying this is Dramione (it isn't) but I am saying that if you like that pairing you should probably read this book. Feisty librarian with a snarky sorcerer? Hmm...

This one ticked all the right YA Fantasy boxes for me. It had just enough world building to make the characters and the romance believable. It's definitely going on my “romantasy for people who don't like the genre” list for me.

My video review can be found here.

My video review can be found here.

3.5 rounded up to 4 because of the cat. This book wasn't perfect, but when it hit it was just right.

Our FMC finds herself inexplicably living inside the small town that makes up her favorite series of books. Naturally all isn't as rosy as it seemed it was going to be after the HEA, and I thought that was where the themes of the book were going, but alas, there was another explanation that I won't spoil.

What themes we got were great though. This book is for everyone who has ever leaned on the comfort of a favorite book during a difficult moment in their lives. It's for everyone who understands what it's like to feel so lost in a fandom that they forget that the characters aren't their real life friends.

To address the minty elephant in the room - yes, Ashley Poston insists on referring to the hero's eyes as “minty green” which is definitely not giving a sexy image in my mind. I honestly thought she was just messing with us about that, especially when she talks about them as “pools of melted mentos.”

Rated four gumpy booksellers out of five!

My video review can be found here!

4.5 stars - 4 for the story and .5 added for Oliver the undead cat.

This book was not on my radar at all, but I picked it up on a whim while I was out at a bookstore. I'm so glad that I did, because I absolutely loved this story! I have read the first book in the author's “Regency Faerie Tales” series and that was only a 3 star read for me.

We follow Winnie, who has arrived at a gothic manor to ostensibly be a governess for the young lord, but in reality is there to find out what is going on with the property. There are faeries and all sorts of magical creepiness hiding in the walls and underground with the strange manor.

With the help of the mysterious butler who greets her when she arrives, Winnie eventually solves the mystery of why the manor has always been so creepy.

This is labeled romantasy, but there is no romance until the last 40% of the book. There is no spice. Personally, I enjoyed that we got to know the characters and they got to know each other before they were thrown into having feelings.

Highly recommended!

2.5 stars, rounded up to three for the side characters.

August and Jane have a meet-cute on the train, and August ends up basically instantly falling in love with her. Well, more like insta-lust, to be honest. This book was a lot spicier than I expected it to be, which would be fine, except that the constraints of the book dictate that all of the spicy scenes happen on the subway. What? Ew, no. I don't like to touch any part of the train, and Jane has been on the subway for 45 years. Nope. I could not get over that.

I did love the found family aspect, and August was a good character right up until the end when the coincidences are too much, and she magically gets all her problems solved.

I would read a whole book about these characters minus the romance because I just didn't buy it. Why did August and Jane like each other? I have no idea. They don't seem to talk about anything real most of the time.

I also enjoyed the history - Jane is a queer woman from the 70s, and her lived experience is much different from August's. I learned about some real events that I wasn't previously aware of, and i appreciate that.

The fantasy elements are more like magical realism, although there is an attempt to make the science work. It was a bit sketchy for me.

Mixed bag, but I'm glad I read it.

My video review of this book can be found here!

TL DR - It was good but not great, although the premise was intriguing.

Our main character, Maya, is a reformed thief. She's gone straight after her last heist had some unintended consequences, and now she's trying to keep her head down and get her PhD. Unfortunately, she gets called in for one last heist, and this is a big one.

Off she goes to find a lost artifact, reunited with her old gang member Auncle (Auncle is an alien and was just completely delightful - easily the best part of the book. She was so positive! Every book with a found family trope needs that character.) They hire a crew of (of course) misfits with hearts of gold and set off on their quest.

This book sets up a lot of heavy themes, chief among them the dangers of colonialism. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like the tone of the book was entirely ready to deal with them, and I was left unsatisfied by both the discourse and the resolution.

If you're just looking for a fun adventure I totally recommend this one. I was just a little disappointed by the depth. The found family was very fun, and as I said Auncle was the best!

My video review of this book can be found here!

Oh look, another crumbling mansion on the sea, another five star rating from me! Ok, so I have some themes that I might be a little obsessed with, and gothic stories is probably top of my list of tropes right now. This is a good one though, I promise!

I was initially scared away by the young adult categorization of this book, but I needn't have been. It didn't read YA to me in the slightest.

Our main character is Effy, and she is very much a victim of her society's narrow views on women. Barred from the literature college due to her sex, she instead joins the architecture school as its only female student. She wins a contest to design a new home for the heir of her favorite author, and she is whisked off to the aforementioned crumbling mansion.

I don't want to spoil the discoveries at the house - just know that there is something dark going on that Effy must puzzle out, together with a student from the literature college. I loved their relationship and how kindly he treated her. I've seen this book called enemies to lovers, but it very much is not. I wouldn't call it a romantasy either, although there eventually is a romance.

An easy five star read, recommended to my fellow gothic story lovers!

My video review of this book can be found here!

I absolutely loved this book! Uncharles, our robotic hero, is not so much fighting against his programming as he is trying to cling to it with all his might. Will he rise against it anyway? Read and find out!

This was touching, hilarious, and deeply philosophical all in one relatively short package. This is my second book by the author and I am very impressed with his range as a writer. Serious writers can't always make characters funny, but Tchaikovsky succeeds here!

An easy five star read and recommended.

What a beautiful novel! I wasn't sure what to expect, but this historical fantasy really swept me away.

This felt like a combo of Murder on the Orient Express, the Night Circus, and What Moves the Dead - very atmospheric with some genuinely creepy moments.

The author does a great job with the setting - both the train and the wastelands themselves are distinct characters within the book. Highly recommended!

My video review is here! **

I had to DNF at around 65%. I'm very disappointed, as I absolutely love his fantasy novel “The Spear Cuts Through Water.”

I was really invested with the beginning of the book. The first chapter is an almost completely self-contained short story about a character who will not be central to the plot. I loved it - Jiminez's writing, as always, was beautiful.

I was also interested in the transport ship and its crew but once we got to the second section of three the plot really slowed to a crawl for me. I know myself well enough to know that slogging through when I'm feeling that bored will lead to a reading slump. I'll use spoiler tags below:

SpoilerI absolutely do not understand the choice to replace most of the crew of Nia's ship. I understand their decisions, as Nia's choice was kind of insane, and I wouldn't want to commit 15 years of my life to her mission either but... I had gotten to know them, and they were interesting and distinct. The replacement crew? Zero interest, and they all felt the same to me. Might this be resolved in the last 35%? Sure, but I was upset at the choice.

The middle section is also told largely by journal entries by one of the least interesting characters possible, another choice that puzzles me.

I think we are meant to care about the boy and about his relationship with Nia, but I struggled to connect to both of them.

I think my review (of the first 65%) is that the pacing is uneven. The writing is still beautiful, but if looking to start one of the author's books I would recommend his other title.

DNF at 35%, but I did skim through to the ending

I think this book does a lot of things right - the humor was very witty and the concept is intriguing. This is not the book to read if you need the time travel explained and the book is very up-front about that.

I had two problems that caused me to DNF. The first was that I couldn't connect to the main character at all, and the humorous dialogue didn't help in that way. There's a way to have a book be humorous but have the characters still have serious conversations, and this wasn't doing it for me.

My second (bigger) issue was that I just got the ick from the fact that the MMC is an actual deceased historical figure. I don't know why, but it just unsettled me when the author was writing about his dimples (that you can see in the one surviving photo of him) and I ultimately couldn't continue. I do think this book will find a wide audience though!

I have a Youtube channel if you are interested in more of my thoughts on books!

“Shesheshen liked priests. They tasted righteous.”

3.5 stars. I found this book to be a little uneven, but overall it was an excellent and very promising debut novel.

Shesheshen is very funny, and the love story is cute. I really enjoyed the lesson, which is obviously going to be about who the real monsters are.

Warnings for body horror: this book was gorier than I was expecting based on how cute it is.

I have a Youtube channel if you are interested in more of my thoughts on books!

“There is not a fence that will keep out the porcupine; to try is folly. One must pay one's taxes, sometimes.”

Looking for a book that absolutely lives up to the hype? Look no further!

North Woods is extremely hard to describe. It's a series of interconnected short stories, it's poetry and “found” artwork and artifacts. It's the story of one piece of land and all that happens there, but it's so much more.

I read this is a buddy read, and it was perfect for that. After each chapter we couldn't wait to discuss that latest residents of the house and any call backs to previous chapters.

The ending was slightly disappointing for me, but I also didn't want the book to end so... this remains a five star read. You should read it if you like: short stories, historical novels, epistolary novels, stories culled from “found materials”, general Americana.

And the cat on the cover has grown on me. Yes, he's actually in the book.

This is my first exposure to Nghi Vo and to the Singing Hills Cycle. I was worried about starting with entry #5, but I quickly caught on. Although the main character is recurring, the individual plotlines are separate for each book.

Our main character is Chih, a monk who is traveling with a bride (Pham Nhuang) and her parents to meet the Lord she is intended to marry (Lord Guo.) It becomes apparent fairly quickly that something is off - Lord Guo is far too old to be marrying a young girl, he has a son who acts strangely and is forbidden from socializing, and the servants seem frightened. This is a retelling of the Bluebeard legend, which has always been one of my favorites. Having said that, it definitely goes to some places that the original story does not!

I will not spoil the twists of the story because they were very unexpected for me. The writing has a high gothic quality to it that only increases as the intensity of the story builds. This novella is only 128 pages, but I felt entirely satisfied with where the story led. I definitely want to continue the series. Recommended, particularly for fans of folk lore and fairytales!

Arc provided by Tor in exchange for my honest review.

I have a BookTube channel if you would like to hear more of my thoughts on books!

I'm super amused by how many people were convinced this was going to be about vampires. But... to be fair, the cover does feature a ghostly white hand and well... calling something “The Familiar” has a certain connotation.

I read the blurb and wasn't sure - I do sometimes like historical fantasy, but I need to be in the mood. I didn't know anything about the Spanish golden era. However, I found myself quickly drawn in by the plot and characters of this tale.

Our main character, Luzia, has had a difficult life. She has to hide her Jewish background as well as the magical powers she possesses due to the persecution of the time. When her mistress Valentina finds out that she has powers, she is set on a course that will take her into the upper reaches of Spanish society.

There is a love story here, but it isn't the focus of the book. To be honest, it could have been absent and I would not have missed it. I did like Santangel and his story. He's not a nice guy, and he hasn't always done nice things, which makes him complicated but ultimately interesting.

My favorite thing about this book was the range of female characters we meet. They were each distinct, and they illustrated the limited options available to women in that time period.

I don't think this will ultimately be quite as memorable to me as some of Leigh Bardugo's other works, but I really enjoyed this. It's a solid 4 star read.

I have a review of this book on my Youtube channel here if you are interested!

I wasn't sure at all what to expect going in to “One Dark Window” but I was very pleasantly surprised! Our story follows Elspeth, who has been secretly living with a monster inside her for most of her life. She is estranged from most of her family and avoids visiting court so that no one finds out her secret.

Magic in this world is forbidden, outside of the magic that is granted to the users of a set of magical cards. Those who have magic face being exiled or killed.

The world building was excellent. I think this is categorized as a romantasy, but I never felt like the world was being sacrificed in order for the love story to advance. The romance also felt fairly mature to me, mostly absent of cliche and tropes.

I cannot wait to read the second book and find out how Elspeth and Ravyn end up!

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor for providing an e-arc of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Ghost Station was an anticipated read for me - I loved Dead Silence, and I was anxious to read the author's next book. I didn't think this book was as strong as that work, but it may depend on your expectations. Ghost Station felt more like a thriller than a horror story to me, and I think those expectations colored my experience.

Although I didn't think Ophelia was a terribly likeable main character, I did enjoy discovering the mystery of her past. The crew were all memorable and I enjoyed their interactions. The setting (an abandoned station on an abandoned planet) was suitably creepy. I just wanted it to be scarier than it ended up being!

I did enjoy the crew and the overall arc of the book. I would definitely read another book by the author. Recommended to fans of thrillers!

I have a BookTube channel if you would like to hear more of my thoughts on books!

I have so many conflicting feelings about this book. Was it a masterpiece? Kind of. Was it also super incredibly frustrating for the first 60%? Absolutely. Am I going to have to read the wiki to sort out what happened? Also yes.

I loved Gideon the Ninth and was very excited for this book. Be prepared, should you read it, to have no idea what is happening for the first half at least. But ultimately it did come together, and I loved the ending. I'm sure there are so many plotlines set up for the final two books that I'll be amazed once I read them. Right now though my brain hurts.

Do I recommend it? Absolutely! I can't rate it quite as high as Gideon though due to the confusion lasting a bit longer than I thought necessary. Four stars, and I'm looking forward to book 3!

I have a BookTube channel if you would like to hear more of my thoughts on books!

“There are things on this earth that only exist because you have beheld them. If you weren't there, they would never have been.”

Happy publication day to this debut novel! I requested the arc of this book due to the comparison to Addie LaRue and Life of Pi. I think those are excellent comparisons, but this book is something all its own.

We follow Aubry. At eight years old she develops an affliction - she must constantly keep moving, and she can't ever stop or she will die horribly. She also can't ever return to the same place.

The story is told in a nonlinear fashion, with Audry relating anecdotes to the people she meets on her journey about her past. The book takes pains to let us know how old Audry is in each story, so I never felt confused by the timeline.

There are a lot of themes to explore here, and I won't spoil them. This was a solid debut novel. It is magical realism, which doesn't always work for me, but in this instance I did not mind it. Don't expect explanations, as is usually the case.

Recommended to those who like magical realism with a literary twist. Four stars!

I have a BookTube channel if you would like to hear more of my thoughts on books!

I really wish I could be part of the five star club for this book, but it fell short for me in a few ways.

First, what it did well: Bree is a fantastic character, and the exploration of her grief was very realistic and well done. I enjoyed the concept of a Fantasy based on Arthurian legends, although I'm not sure I learned that much about them from this book.

Unfortunately, the book leaned too heavily on Young Adult fantasy tropes for my taste, and I felt it was too long/dragged in the middle. The end was very exciting! I won't be continuing, but I do recommend checking the series out if you are interested in the concept.

I have a BookTube channel if you would like to hear more of my thoughts on books!

This is one of my favorite books so far this year, and definitely my favorite book by the author!

Everything about this book was delightful. From Ana and Din's homes/Watson dynamic to the fantastic world building I was invested right from the beginning.

I think if you love mysteries this might be a hit for you - it's definitely more mystery than fantasy, although the world building was great too.

Five stars and I can't wait for the next book!