Nico
A collection of seven short stories inspired by fairytales. Expect the unexpected, there's everything from talking cats that man a pot farm to murderous things in a post-apocalyptic world that only are kept at bay by the presence of a corpse.
I thought for sure after the second story this would be winner for me, but then by the third I was less enthused and it really just went down from there. Link is an interesting storyteller, but part of my issue is that she either spends a lot of time that felt unnecessary in its setup or they're too intellectual for me (or it wasn't a me problem at all, I'll never know) and complete misses.
Favorites were The White Cat's Divorce and Prince Hat Underground. Absolute least favorites were The Girl Who Did not Know Fear, Game of Smash and Recovery and The Lady and the Fox.
A very satisfying conclusion to the Alamaxa Duology. While the first book focused on our two women MCs fighting for their right to use their elemental magic and the politicking in this patriarchal society, book two focused on war. It’s one of the few series that’s made me really mad, but in a good way. This was almost a 5-star book, it just had some plot convenience things and rushing that knocked it down a smidge.
I *highly* recommend this underread series, but especially for people who like diving deep into MC’s motivations, thought processes, etc, politics and revolutions, you’re looking for non-Western inspired fantasy, you like books that explore power imbalances that resemble those of the real world, or you want a short series that is fast-paced.
Books 2 and 3 of the Morrigan Crow series were a light in between most of the listens I’ve been begrudgingly tackling recently and I devoured them because I just couldn’t with the others.
Wundersmith focuses on Morrigan in her first year with her cohort - sisters and brothers for life - yet it seems most everyone, cohort and teachers alike, is against her and believes she is dangerous. She is bolstered and validated by Jupiter, the staff at the Hotel Deucalion and her BFF Hawthorne. Blackmail to her cohort to keep her secret isn’t helping, people around her are going missing, and she gets multiple surprise visits from the evil Wundersmith. How will Morrigan make it through her first year?
I’m pretty sure this will be a cozy read for most readers - lightly adventurous traveling story, friendship and a cat! I consumed the audio of this between some more aggravating reads and found it very relaxing and soothing. I loved the sweets descriptions and it made me hungry every time. Just noting there is some racism, an estranged family relationship and a missing child.
Tao, a Shinarian, travels Esthera in her cart with her donkey companion reading small fortunes to residents of the towns she visits. At one stop, she tells small fortunes that change the trajectory of her future and begrudgingly welcomes new traveling companions.
Cat satisfaction rating: 🐈🐈🐈 out of 5. Love that there’s a mundane cat, but not enough cat cuteness or other cat behaviors, and why is he always craving sweets and other carbs?! It distracted me everytime!
Mostly audiobook review- Clearly I’m in the minority of negative opinions about this book, but I do think that folks looking for own-voices Black-American YA fantasy fiction, positive adoption rep or queer family rep might want to check this out.
City kid Briseis is a teenager who can help plants grow. Her moms (plant shop owners) know, but she has strained relationships with her friends who don’t understand her and want her to distance herself from the world of plants. While she’s thinking about applying for college, she learns she’s inherited a mysterious mansion and ultimately finds it has secrets.
Oooookay, my issues. I found the plot to be slow and it takes so long to build on the gothic atmosphere, mysteries, and stakes. There’s a fair bit of repetitive and one-dimensional writing, dialogue, and characters — and it doesn’t translate well on audio IMO. I mean there’s just so many times you can listen to “I said,” over and over again (my point was 81% when I switched to e-book). If the writing was better OR the book’s plot and characters tightened up this could have been at least 3-stars from me - I think it just needed more editing. There’s more griping I could add, but I’ll just say I face-palmed myself SO many times and the romance was only based on “she’s so pretty,” (spoiler below)
even when Briseis learns about the age gap — vomit.
As someone on GRs said, “no plot just vibes,” but even the vibes were a miss for me. I felt like I was kept at arms-length. It’s an interesting premise, but I never was wowed by Penny, Dallergut or the store, and - maybe because of the state of my cold, dark heart - I never felt my heartstrings pulled, even though I craved it. My favorite of the stories were about the customers addressing their trauma and the musician struggling with inspiration, but even those felt too brief and just at surface level. I just felt nothing with this one.
Penny gets a job at the Dallergut Dream Department store, a place where you can purchase dreams ranging from meeting a celebrity to seeing a family member who has passed. Told in a series of vignettes, you follow Penny as she bumbles and learns the ropes while interacting with customers.
I think fans of When the Coffee Gets Cold might enjoy this or vice versa, folks who enjoy the cozy subgenre, or *maybe* light novels (I’m pretty ignorant about these, but this somewhat reminded me of light novel The Haunted Bookstore by Shinobumaru - maybe it was just the cutsy protagonist in the vignette style, though I prefer that one).
Well I blasted through this novella today while waiting on errand things. First, I was hooked in by the opening chapter: Molly wakes up to find herself locked up in the basement and she can't remember much, but she finds her captor is herself, Molly. Then we go on a little journey that starts with a young Molly and her parents on their farm.... I really don't want to say too much because I think even the early reveal was a nice surprise.
I don't know how to sell this, I just thought it was such an engrossing journey and interesting story and premise, I recommend this for horror readers especially if they want something short. Basically, this is horror, but I wouldn't say it was scary just more horrific with LOTS of blood and disturbing things - but for me enough distanced to not want to vomit.
This is my third Thompson and he's demonstrated to me (even if I didn't love Rosewater like I loved this one or Far from the Light of Heaven) that he is an underread sci-fi author, definitely going to try to consume more sooner than later.
This is a delightful debut and m/m romance with very mild creepy vibes. I really liked all of the characters, the romance and the housecat tertiary character. In 1934, a conman is recruited by an Egyptologist who works in a small university museum and believes he has a real haunting on his hands. For a debut I thought this was pretty solid and quite enjoyable. There was something missing for me, the closest thing I can think of is the haunting is just to move the plot forward and there was too much time spent with this other threat that emerges.
This was my IRL book club's pick for this month. It had mixed reception amongst the crew, but I really liked this and think it's a strong debut. For me I was immediately hooked by the premise; off the bat you learn that every single white person in America walked into the water one day. You follow a father and daughter, who had never met before the event for reasons. What kept me interested were the glimpses into the physiological and societal responses to such an event happened and the thriller-esque tension as they traveled from place to place. So, so much more I could say and it was a good book club discussion. I could nitpick some things and some folks absolutely did in the meeting, but to paraphrase a fellow member, it was provocative and I'm glad I read it.
This begins as a character study following Sarita who grapples with the question, “how do you cope when the thing you thought was your angel for so long is actually your devil?” While unpacking the lore of the devils in this world there is a fair amount of violence and gore, compelling time in likeable and unlikeable characters' heads, and rich writing that Compton lured me in with yet again.
There was a bit of info dumping and so much time in characters' heads that the book meandered a bit for me sometimes, but for horror readers who like to slowly sink their teeth into a story I think this will work. Plot-driven readers might be disappointed.
Halfway through I switched to purchased audio to meet my ARC review deadline, great audio narration.
A fabulous middle grade, which seem to be winners for me this year. Fantastic themes for younger ones and I especially liked how it features a father-daughter relationship (even though we don't really see dad on page). Faye is a servant and the daughter of the groundskeeper, who trained his daughter well. While he's away gathering supplies their egotistical and aloof wizard passes away in his sleep, but he doesn't know it yet and everyone is scared to tell him. Faye finds herself having to take charge and protect the living castle and its creatures that she loves so much, while trying to keep secret that she is a witch. Just super cute with friendship and cute creatures, and is fast-paced without being too fast-paced that I got a headache. Perfect.
Audio review: A dual-POV story about a fallen trickster god and a wanted nine-tailed fox who hides under that name Honey and works at a coffee shop. Three men are found without livers and Honey weasels her way into the investigation, when an even more heinous murder takes place. If you like the enemies to lovers trope this one is for you. If you like urban fantasy and mythology mashups you'll likely like this too. Romantasy definitely.
I really, really liked this finale. The whole trilogy is a win for me, and I recommend for epic fantasy fans or if you're looking for non-Euro Western fantasy. This does reinforce the idea that I should not start an epic fantasy series until it's done, because I was lost from time to time after a big read gap between this one and the second book.
Very cute middle-grade story about a 13-year-old witch who, according to tradition, leaves home with her familiar cat to find a new home. Kiki doesn't feel like she has the magical skills to serve her new (big) town, so she opens up a delivery service using her broom as transport. Super cute, very relaxing and my version of cozy. If you've seen the Studio Ghibli movie but not read the book the deliveries are different.
My go-to series during reading slumps these past couple years. I'm hella itching for some plot things to happen, like for at least one of the parents to learn Anya can read minds, or even the dog, idc I need some movement here, like even if it's just suspicion of each other being more than they seem. None of that happened, but there were some cool backstory/flashback things, so 4 stars.
I saw a reviewer say that this was an inferior version of the Daevabad trilogy...and I think that is absolute garbage. First, this is a fast-paced, more plot-driven story inspired by One Thousand and One Nights and following three characters: a thief who travels with a Djinn, a Djinn hunter, and a prince. Second, the setting may feel somewhat similar (I mean given the history and region of inspiration shocker) but that's it. Aside from it clearly being a different book, author, themes, etc., Daevabad is more about being ingrained in the culture and political machinations of the Djinn, while this one feels very rooted in the plot and more like a fairytale come to life. Not that there's no character development, there is and there's trauma too that the characters navigate.
I really enjoyed this. It felt epic, urgent, and high-stakes, and I love adore Djinn stories and fairytales. I think if you like Daevabad you will like this and vice-versa, but just don't expect a 1:1, they're different books! Even though I gobbled this one up at a time when I was having trouble with audiobooks, I was feeling some fatigue towards the end, like, “oh we're still going and I have 25% left.” It doesn't quite end on a cliffhanger but you clearly have to keep reading the next book to get to a resolution.