Highlights: June 2026

Well, forget spring, we’re straight into summer! At least if the last week of May has anything to say about it! While the extra sunshine and daylight is great, the return of the heat and humidity is…less so. Ah well! At least we have ALA at the end of the month. We also have a bunch of new titles to look forward to reading from the shade or, more realistically, the air-conditioned home.

Serena’s Picks

Book: “The Unicorn Hunters” by Katherine Arden

Publication Date: June 2, 2026

Why I’m Interested: Arden is a must-read author for me, so naturally this is at the top of my list. Beyond the fact that she’s such a talented author and could probably make any story work, this one sounds particularly up my alley! A historical fairytale that re-imagines the life of Anne of Brittany. Dark forests, mysterious magic, and what sounds like a solid romantic subplot! I can’t wait to check this one out! Plus, this cover is absolutely hitting it out of the park!

Book: “The Fatal Unpleasantness at Netherfield” by Claudia Gray

Publication Date: June 16, 2026

Why I’m Interested: Every spring I get excited for the next entry into the “Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney” mystery series by Claudia Gray. There hasn’t been a singled misstep so far! I’m, of course, excited to see how the slowburn romance between our two main characters will progress, but I’m also excited with the new location and cast of characters we’re going to see in this one! Give me more Mr. Bingley and Jane Bennet any day of the week! I can’t imagine two people less able to manage needing to be suspicious of house guests as potential murderers! Jane would simply say there must have been a terrible misunderstanding somewhere and no one is actually murdered! I can’t wait for this!

Book: “Endless Blue Beneath” by Shannon K. English

Publication Date: June 9, 2026

Why I’m Interested: There have been some great mermaid stories recently, not least our recent book club book, “When the Tides Held the Moon.” So of course I was going to jump at the chance to now read a sapphic version of mermaids! The story follows a young woman who is shunned on land, only to find a new family and world deep beneath the sea. And, of course, a mysterious love interest. Plus, again, the cover art on this one is just amazing!

Kate’s Picks

Book: “You First” by Caroline Kepnes

Publication Date: June 9, 2026

Why I’m Interested: I am ALWAYS going to be interested in a Joe Goldberg story, I don’t care how creepy and terrible he is. And the wait for a new one is finally over as Caroline Kepnes is back with a new Joe book, this time taking us back in time to when he was a teenager! And to the first time he had a transformational obsession, I mean romance. Seventeen year old Joe meets Vail, an older woman who comes into Moody’s Books and sweeps Joe off his feet. Everyone has an origin story, even the stalker creeps, and seeing how Joe became Joe is sure to be a dark and sardonic ride.

Book: “It Came From Neverland” by Cynthia Pelayo

Publication Date: June 9, 2026

Why I’m Interested: I love Cynthia Pelayo’s dark fairy tale horror stories, and this time she is taking on a literary fantasy classic: Peter Pan! Wendy Darling is living in World War I London, teaching children and caring for wounded soldiers, and trying to forget how she and her brothers were lured away by a mysterious boy when they were children, only to find out that Neverland was a place where a monster lived. Now she is starting to see hints that Peter, the boy who stole her and other children, may be back to harm more kids. I love a dark retelling and Pelayo is always a macabre and emotional delight steeped in dreamy prose. This is sure to be a winner.

Book: “What Happened To Those Girls” by Carlyn Greenwald

Publication Date: June 30, 2026

Why I’m Interested: Mean girl antics meets “The Blair Witch Project”? Oh yes please! I love a soapy teen drama with girls being cruel to each other already, but when you throw in a horror twist it’s all the better. Emma is always the odd one out of her friend group, but it goes one step too far one night when her friends go on a camping trip that was her idea and leave her behind. But her friends are murdered on that trip, and Emma starts getting weird videos of the night they died. In order to clear her name, she teams up with one of the victim’s sister’s to discover who is behind it. I like mysteries too so it just sounds like a fun read all around.

What books are you reading this month? Let us know in the comments!

Serena’s Review: “Sisters of the Lizard”

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Book: “Sisters of the Lizard” by Jackson Ford

Publishing Info: Orbit, May 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: Netgalley!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: All Sayana wanted was to enjoy her life in the rolling grasslands of the Tapestry. After she and her fellow Rakada managed to ride humongous fire-breathing lizards to face down the Great Khan’s army, they should have been able to kick back a little for once. Not too much to ask, right?

Instead, the Tapestry is in turmoil – invading armies threaten, the other raider clans are at war, and inside his fortress city of Karkorum, the Khan broods and plots. What’s more, the Rakada’s giant lizards are getting sick, and they have no idea how to cure them. If they die, there’s no telling what might happen to the Tapestry.

But then the Rakada receive a vision – apparently from the gods. A deep emerald pool surrounded by bone-white sands – one that may be able to heal their lizards. With no other option, the raiders set out on an epic quest across the mountains and into the desert.

But the danger that awaits them will be one greater than they’ve ever faced before. These guys really can’t catch a break.

Previously Reviewed: “The Bone Raiders”

Review: After really enjoying the first book in this series, this had a firm spot near the top of my TBR. And this sequel succeeded in the most basic sense: it was more of what I liked from the first book!

The first book introduced a wide cast of female characters, all with excellent and distinct personalities and inner arcs. Here, we got more of the same. While I like all of the main characters, I was especially excited to see that Hogelun moved more to the center stage of the story. She was probably my favorite character from the first book, the one with the most surprising personal story of the sort that we don’t often see in these sorts of stories. And here we see that arc continue even further as Hogelun is pushed to come more fully into her own. The lasting effects of her previous emotionally abusive relationship remain a challenge, and it was so satisfying watching Hogelun progress forward through her own struggles. And while this sounds like a lot of slow, introspective work, the author manages to explore these deeper psychological moments all while making his characters fight on the back of giant lizards!

Sayana’s story also went in a surprising direction. Her story was built more around the fears and challenges the Bone Raiders face in this book, some of which are truly tragic. There was also a stronger emphasis on the religion and lore of this world that was brought to the forefront in Sayana’s story, wrapping up in some fairly incredible twists and turns.

I also continued to be impressed by the author’s ability to merge an action-packed fantasy world alongside deeper themes of family, leadership, and loyalty. Like I said, there was definitely more tragedy in this book, and I definitely found myself tearing up at points. That said, I wouldn’t say it was a heavy read. The action was exciting and there was a humorous tinge to most of the writing.

My one qualm comes down to something that I praised in the first book. There, I enjoyed the fact that the author devoted so much page time to the villain of the story. The same approach was taken here, and while I did appreciate some insights into this character’s perspective, I also disliked them so strongly that I had a hard time wanting to spend any more time with them as the story continued, especially as I became more and more invested in the other storylines.

Overall, this was a fantastic sequel. It delivered on the same strengths in the first book and elevated the overall stakes of the world and story going forward. If you liked the first book or are looking for an action-packed fantasy series, I strongly recommend these books so far!

Rating 8: A bit darker than the first book, but “Sisters of the Lizard” was still a blast, full of action and fierce women!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Sisters of the Lizard” can be found on this Goodreads list: All the New Fantasy Books Arriving in May 2026

Fire’s Catching: “Sunrise on the Reaping”

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It’s been eighteen years since Suzanne Collins wrote “The Hunger Games”, the smash hit literary sensation that continues to feel relevant and capture the attention of readers. This ongoing series will be a review series of both the Suzanne Collins books, as well as the film adaptations of the novels. I will post my review on the last Thursday of the month as we revisit the totalitarian world of Panem and the hope of the Mockingjay.

Book: “Sunrise on the Reaping” by Suzanne Collins

Publishing Info: Scholastic Press, March 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

Review: We are now at the last book in the “Hunger Games” universe, and I remember being wholly stoked when “Sunrise on the Reaping” was announced. We were finally going to get Haymitch’s Games! I have loved Haymitch since I first read the books, and on this read through I only appreciated his character more. When we meet Haymitch he is the lone surviving victor of District 12 (and only the second victor overall), and he is a drunken PTSD ridden mess who has to mentor Katniss and Peeta, and he turns into a emotional support for them as well as an important part of the rebellion. We all know that he was going to have a rough backstory, but the idea of meeting him when he was young and a tribute was so exciting! I know that some people thought that it was going to be fan service. Well, I can tell you that Suzanne Collins basically said ‘yeah, fuck you and your fan service, you are going to only get FAN DEVASTATION’ (outside of a cameo by THE Effie Trinket), because “Sunrise on the Reaping” is quite possibly the most depressing “Hunger Games” story yet.

I should have known it was going to make me sob. (source)

I am sure that that was in part due to the fact that Collins didn’t want the fandom to get comfortable and to lose sight of the overall message of these stories. But it is also because Haymitch Abernathy, while a side character seen through the eyes of Katniss in the original trilogy, has an incredibly sad backstory that has to shape who he is by the time we get to Katniss and Peeta’s games. And shape “Sunrise on the Reaping” does.

So we go to the 50th Hunger Games, which is also the Second Quarter Quell, where the ‘special twist’ is that each district sends four tributes. We had some info about this thanks to snippets in the original trilogy, like we knew that Haymitch had a fellow tribute named Maysilee Donner (whose twin Merilee was the mother of Katniss’s friend Madge). But Collins gives us a far larger picture about how Haymitch got to where he was, as well as a look at propaganda in Panem and how entrenched it is.

The propaganda is REALLY apparent this time around, as we see more blatant examples of it in this book that the regular viewers of The Games would completely miss. Whether it’s sudden replacements of tributes after horrific tragedy that is scrubbed from view (like Haymitch not being the original tribute, or the whole Louella/Lou Lou thing, my GOD), or the way that we see Plutarch Heavensbee’s original role as a cinematographer of sorts (more on him in a bit) to promote the games, we see how Snow has taken his lessons from “Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and really started to implement them to make the Games full on garish entertainment and a tool of control through fear. And not just the general population, but also the former victors, as we see some fan favorites in this book making appearances like Beetee and Mags and Wiress, but whose circumstances of being involved range from depressing (Mags and Wiress being mentors and seeing them BEFORE they are where they are in the original series, mental health wise), to outright devastating (Beetee’s own child has been reaped, and it’s implied that it is in retaliation).

But the other huge theme in this book which REALLY worked for me and feels SUPER RELEVANT (not that government propaganda doesn’t) is the way that Collins approaches and expands upon the idea of a revolution. When we read the initial trilogy, it seems like Katniss as the Mockingjay is the spark that lit the flame to revolution in Panem, as so many things came together to make her a symbol and people like Plutarch, Haymitch, and Alma Coin took advantage of her popularity to pull off the uprising. But we find out in “Sunrise on the Reaping” that Plutarch has been working on a revolution alllll the way back to Haymitch’s games, and Haymitch was his first tribute recruit. Obviously, it doesn’t go well, and while Haymitch does win and while Plutarch goes undetected, Haymitch loses basically everything after he goes outside of Snow’s approval of how he handles the Games. The revolution this time is a failure, and it takes YEARS to actually achieve, and it needs a lot of lucky timing and non-controllable circumstances to actually come to fruition. This is what hit me the hardest as I read this book, because I think that for a lot of people the idea of a ‘revolution’ is something that just happens, it works, and everything is better. But in reality, it can take a lot of time, it usually involves a lot of deaths, and it also tends to have to have people behind the scenes, like Plutarch Heavensbee, bless is incredibly morally gray character, who are willing to do REALLY dodgy things to achieve their goals, with others, usually more vulnerable groups, bearing the brunt of it like poor Haymitch who lives in the poorest area of one of the poorest districts.

And finally, I also want to touch on the portrayal of District 12 in this book, as we’re kind of in the middle of the timeline between “Songbirds” and the original trilogy. The Covey are still around at this point, with Haymitch being in love with a Covey girl named Lenore Dove. It’s an interesting point in the timeline because the Covey are becoming more sparse, though there is still a clear divide between the Covey, the more merchant class, and the working class in the Seam. We also know that by the time we go twenty five years into the future, the Covey are basically gone, at least culture wise (as Katniss’s father is Covey on his mother’s side), and we see a cultural extermination in process over the series’s timeline. It’s sad and deeply interesting, and with the way Lenore Dove’s fate settles out and how Lucy Gray disappeared in the previous novel, it stings all the more knowing their community will be gone in the coming years.

“Sunrise on the Reaping” is another impactful and powerful “Hunger Games” story that avoids the pitfalls that could have come with it. If Collins is done with these stories and this world, it has ended on a strong note. Up next we start our movie reviews, and we start with “The Hunger Games”! Back to the beginning folks!

Rating 9: There is no fan service to be found here. Instead we get a despairing look at how Haymitch Abernathy became who he was in the original trilogy, as well as an examination of the power of propaganda as manipulation to get a population to believe whatever those in power want them to, and how sometimes revolutions take decades to achieve.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Sunrise on the Reaping” is included on the Goodreads lists “Best Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction”, and “[ATY 2026] Character in More Than One Book”.

Serena’s Review: “A Curse of Beasts and Magic”

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Book: “A Curse of Beasts and Magic” by Jeaniene Frost

Publishing Info: Bramble, May 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Raine Stone was the sole survivor of a horrific creature while camping. Her account of the attack was attributed to shock, but Raine knows all too well that her story is true because now she carries that same Beast inside her!

She’s been restraining its violent urges by letting it ‘feed’ on the pain and chaos she’s exposed to as an ER nurse, and by playing vigilante against would-be muggers at night. But when Raine uses the Beast’s energy to heal a frail elderly gentleman from a seemingly random attack, she opens herself to a new world of danger—literally.

Remington “Remy” Byrne knows that the wall between a realm of deadly mythic creatures and our own world is very thin; he’s the Warden who guards the gateways between them. He also rules the supernatural creatures living in secret among us. Raine’s Beast makes her an intruder on Remy’s territory, but the elderly gentleman she saved is Remy’s grandfather, and her Beast contains power that could tip the scales in a sinister plot against Remy’s rule—if Raine allies with him.

Will they be friends or foes…or will the dangerous attraction between them turn into something else? And can our world be saved by their explosive alliance?

Review: To start with an aside, I do wish publishers would find a better way of differentiating their fantasy titles. Between the book cover and the book description, there were zero hints anywhere to be found that this was an urban fantasy. I enjoy urban fantasy, but for readers who picked this up off the shelf, looked at the ballgown on the cover, and then read the book description, which hints at a fairytale retelling, there’s very little to clue anyone in that this is not the high fantasy story it appears to be. Sure, if you look closely at the one castle, you can see a cityscape, but that’s asking a bit much of readers to dig out clues. This isn’t a deal breaker by any means, but I do think that this kind of thing can lead to a mismatch between the book and the reader, leaving some of the prime audience members unaware that this might be right up their alley! It’s as simple as not putting that central character in a ballgown! Put her in some badass leather jacket number and boom! Problem solved!

That being the case, once I mentally slotted this one into the “paranormal romance” category, there was a lot to like here! Most notably, I did enjoy the romance here. There was an appropriate build-up of tension, and any trust built between the two characters had to be earned. This made the eventual resolution between them that much sweeter. I also thought that the banter here was some of the better that I’ve read recently. While I wasn’t in love with the dialogue, the fact that it wasn’t actively cringey was still a massive win. Most importantly, their banter felt appropriately rooted in the two sorts of characters our main leads are.

The pacing, however, was a bit all over the place. The story starts off quickly, pulling you immediately into the action and introducing the characters and the stakes. However, once you get to the middle portion, things slowed down quite a bit. Some lull is to be expected, but there were moments here where it did veer into infodump territory, with a lot of world-building thrown at the reader all at once, without much else happening for a decent chunk of time. The end picked up again, but it did leave the overall pacing of the book as a whole feeling uneven.

However, and this is a massive however for me, I do feel like the ending was doing yet another bait-and-switch love interest move. I’m so, so tired of this trope, and I can’t say enough how frustrating it is to pick up a book and have to read the entire thing before this trope punches me in the face in the last chapter. It’s really getting to the point where I feel like I might have to stop reading romantasies for the foreseeable future. There’s not enough time in the day and too many books to read to devote hours of reading time to a book only to then run into a deal-breaker trope at the very end, making the entire thing feel pointless.

But this is very much my hang-up, and my suspicions about the next book won’t impact my rating of this one (though I will not be reading it until I’ve read other reviews and determined the direction things are going). Once I settled into the correct subgenre of fantasy, this was a fun, fast read with a compelling romance at its heart. If you’re looking for the high fantasy “Beauty and the Beast” retelling that it looks to be advertising, this isn’t that. On the other hand, paranormal romance and urban fantasy fans should be well pleased!

Rating 8: Uneven pacing in the middle did hurt things a bit, but I enjoyed the romance and Remy as a main character!

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Curse of Beasts and Magic” isn’t currently on any Goodreads lists, but it should be on Beauty and the Beast.

Kate’s Review: “Dead Weight”

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Book: “Dead Weight” by Hildur Knútsdóttir & Mary Robinette Kowal (Translator)

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, May 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: An Icelandic night may hide secrets and affairs—or even bodies—in this gruesomely cathartic horror thriller from the author of The Night Guest.

Unnur was living a normal, if lonely, life until a black cat showed up at her door.

Trying to do the right thing, Unnur reunites the lost pet with its owner—a young woman named Ásta who is in desperate need of some help. Unnur reluctantly agrees to take in the cat until Ásta is able to care for it again herself.

Soon, Ásta becomes a fixture in Unnur’s life and the two form an unlikely friendship. But like a black cat, trouble is tailing Ásta, and Unnur is the only one there when things take a violent turn.

Nothing tests a friendship like blood on your hands.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novella!

I’m a big fan of stories that like to talk about women’s rights AND women’s wrongs, and especially love stories like that if it’s a cathartic story about women getting revenge on the men that cause them harm. Basically I love a story that has a “Goodbye Earl” kinda vibe to it. When I read the description of Hildur Knútsdóttir’s “Dead Weight”, I DEFINITELY caught that kind of vibe from it. I enjoyed Knútsdóttir’s previous book “The Night Guest”, and this one sounded perhaps less strange, but still very much my thing. I jumped in and was pleased that not only did it have the ‘get revenge’ theme, but also CATS!

This novella is definitely more of a thriller than a horror story this time around, but Knútsdóttir still manages to find ways to not only bring out suspense but also dread at times. The plot is fairly straightforward as we follow Unnur, a woman living in Iceland who keeps to herself and is carrying on an affair with a married man, convincing herself she’s okay with all of it. One night a cat named Io randomly ends up in her apartment, and a woman named Ásta comes looking. Unnur and Ásta are different in temperament, they get to know each other and Unnur takes on Io (and a surprise kitten!) at Ásta’s behest, as her boyfriend Ragnar doesn’t like the cat and she worries he’d flip about a kitten. As the story quietly unfolds we see more and more hints and evidence that Ragnar is a very dangerous man, we also see two women confiding in each other and finding strength in their friendship as they become closer and danger starts to threaten both of them. It’s pretty clear where this story is going, but I was still kept on the edge of my seat as Knútsdóttir lays out the building blocks for a visceral climax.

I also liked the burgeoning friendship between Unnur and Ásta, and the way that Knútsdóttir compares and contrasts their romantic relationships and deconstructs the different ways that they are toxic. For Ásta it’s pretty straight forward, and Unnur is horrified to see Ásta being dominated and intimidated by her boyfriend Ragnar, and his vileness is pretty apparent with how he treats not only Ásta but also the cats (whose presence has helped Unnur and Ásta bond). But we also see the toxic relationship that Unnur has with her boyfriend Joi, who is married with a family and who has been stringing Unnur along for awhile, making promises that she clings to even though she knows deep down that what she is doing is not only cruel to Joi’s wife, but also to herself. I loved the way that both women could see the damaging facets of their friend’s relationship, but had the blinders put on due to the manipulative and abusive, be it overt or not, relationships they themselves were in. As they disentangle and find connection with each other (and the cats!), we see this really empowering story about female friendship, which has a little bit of the “Goodbye Earl” vibes that I was hoping for.

I definitely enjoyed “Dead Weight”! It’s cathartic and atmospheric and I found it incredibly satisfying.

Rating 8: A quick and enjoyable thriller about friendship, solidarity, and the sour parts of relationships where men mistreat women and the women have to fight back one way or another.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Dead Weight” is included on the Goodreads list “Creepy Statue Covers”.

Not Just Books: May 2026

While we do love us some books, believe it not, we do have a life outside of reading. So to highlight our other pop culture interests, on the last Monday of each month, we each will highlight three other “happenings” from the last month. Big events on favorite TV shows, new movies we’ve watched, old movies we’ve “discovered,” etc. Pretty much whatever we found of particular interest outside of the book world during the last month. Share your own favorite things in the comments!

Serena’s Picks

Video Game: “Rise of the Ronin”

To prove that I’m not ONLY playing BG3 and nothing but BG3, I started up a few new video games this month. So here is the first of two! Open word games can be a bit hit or miss for me. I really loved “Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey” but “Vahalla” was a slog, just too big and with too actual story to balance out the endless sprinkling of pointless map markers. That being the case, I was unsure what to expect with “Rise of the Ronin.” But overall, I’ve been really loving it! The scenery is gorgeous, the character creator was honestly shocking in how robust it was, and the story so far has been great, nicely slotting in to the void left behind after finishing watching “Shogun” last year. Plus, one of your mini quests is to find and pet cats. So, yeah, that’s obviously up my alley.

TV Show: “Jury Duty: Company Retreat”

Both my husband and I really enjoyed “Jury Duty,” the reality show where one poor guy doesn’t know he’s on a show and is surrounded by actors all doing their best to be as ridiculous as possible. It was so weird, and funny, and almost voyeuristic? So of course we were immediately interested when we saw that another season was coming out, this time swapping the “jury duty” concept for an intern at a company retreat. Like the first go around, the show really lives and dies on the niceness of the actual person at the center of the show. And Anthony seems like such a stand up guy, that by the end, you almost feel bad for him that he’s been put through this whole ridiculous thing and has been the only sane person in the room so much of the time.

Video Game: “Pragmata”

While “Ronin” is both and older and much longer game, one that I’m still working on now, “Pramata” came out only a month or ago or so and was a much more manageable length. I was fairly completionist with it, and it only took me about 20 hours to finish up. And boy, I was surprised by how much I liked this! Action shooters aren’t my go-to game, but the combination of shooting plus the hacking puzzle to break enemies’ shields really ended up working for me! The story was also straight-forward and sweet. I especially enjoyed the wholesome and optimistic relationship between Diana and Hugh. Most notably, Hugh wasn’t a “sad dad” type of character, which I really appreciated. Definitely give this one a go if you’re looking for a unique-feeling sci-fi adventure!

Kate’s Picks

Band: Tragedy

I went to a well loved St. Paul music venue called The Turf Club to see Electric Six at the beginning of the month with my husband and some of our friends. We all have loved Electric Six for years and try to go see them when they come to town. None of us had heard of the openers, a metal tribute band called Tragedy. We figured it would be a fine way to pass the time to wait for the main event as we all like metal (hell, one of my friends has done drumming in metal bands in the past), but when Tragedy came on stage and started to play, my brain chemistry was forever changed. They are a metal band that covers songs that you would NOT associate with metal. They played “Summer Nights” from “Grease”. They played “Without You” by Air Supply. It was when they played “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond, but in the style of heavy/prog metal artist King Diamond (with one of the members in full King Diamond cosplay) that short circuited my brain. Their glam/sleaze metal styling of their cheeky cover choices is SO inspired, and I am OBSESSED. THEY ARE SO GOOD AND I CANNOT STOP LISTENING.

Film: “Forbidden Fruits”

There are some kinds of film vibes that are always going to win me over. Witch shit, campiness, cuntiness, horror, and quippy dark humor all fall into this category. So it’s very obvious that a film like “Forbidden Fruits” is going to be very much my scene. Taking place at a Dallas shopping mall, we have Apple, Cherry, and Fig, three It Sales Girls at the hot boutique Free Eden. And when they are approached by the food court pretzel seller Pumpkin, they decide to pull her into their group, which is actually a coven, with Apple as their ruthless leader. But Pumpkin’s inclusion upends the hierarchy of the sisterhood, and things start to fall apart. Especially when Pumpkin finds out about a previous member named Pickle who isn’t in the circle anymore. It is “The Craft” meets “Heathers”/”Mean Girls”, and it has so many ridiculous moments I was cackling the whole time. All of the characters were fun, but Lili Reinhart as the intimidating and vicious Apple and Victoria Pedretti as the completely unhinged Cherry REALLY stood out to me.

Film: “Obsession”

I remember seeing a really short teaser for this before some other horror movie I was watching with the usual Terror Tuesday crew and we all looked at each other and nodded, knowing we needed to see this movie. We finally got to it over the holiday weekend, and my GOD. It really got under my skin but in the best way. Bear is a neurotic and intimidated guy who has a huge crush on his friend Nikki, though he can’t get the courage up to ask her out or make his feelings known. Instead in the heat of the moment he uses a One Wish Willow, a novelty toy he bought at a mysticism shop, to wish that Nikki would love him more than anyone else in the world. Well, his wish comes true. But Nikki very quickly starts to act unhinged and completely obsessed with him, begging for his love at any cost. Inde Navarrette as Nikki is one of the best horror performances I’ve seen, and what I liked most about this movie is that it is less about ‘be careful what you wish for’, and more about someone taking someone’s agency away from them in the most horrific way. And THAT is what scared me the most. MAN this is an intense but great watch.

Serena’s Review: “Worthy of Fate”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Worthy of Fate” by A.N. Caudle

Publishing Info: Ace, May 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: The Gem

Marked by the Gods, Kya is forced to partake in a Trial for a chance to be deemed Worthy. If she succeeds, she’ll be gifted great powers. If she fails, she could lose her life or worse. But that’s only the start of her worries. Now, the same plague that took her home is spreading and threatening the fate of the realm. Can Kya survive the Trial of the Gods and gain the needed power to rid the world of the growing threat before it’s too late? Or will she be drawn to what awaits her in the shadows?

The Shadow

Ryker has waited a long time for her—his mate. Now he’s found her. He plans to claim what is rightfully his, but dark forces threaten to destroy his Nation should he embrace the bond he so desperately desires. Unable to escape the drive to be near her, he waits for his precious gem, lingering in her shadow.

Review: This was a really confusing read. It was trying so hard to be so many things that I felt off-balance for much of my time reading it as we jumped from storyline to storyline and between one trope and the next. For one thing, while there are a million and one fantasy books featuring some sort of trial with the Gods, that is the most distinctive feature highlighted in the marketing for this one. That being the case, I was incredibly surprised by how quickly this particular plot point seemed to wrap up. Even if it’s familiar, there have been some really good books featuring trials, and I was really expecting this portion of the book to make up the primary plot. I enjoyed what we had from it, but it just wasn’t enough and left me a bit floundering once I realized the book was moving on to the next thing.

The two main characters weren’t bad by any means (even if the FMC had some supremely questionable decision-making towards the end), but they also didn’t offer up much that was new. Kya was stabby. Ryker was a shadow daddy. You get the gist just from those two short sentences.

I was also a bit disappointed to realize this was a fated mates romance. This one fell into the trap that so many romances do when it comes to this trope. That is, by calling them “fated mates,” the author neatly sidesteps any necessary work to show their relationship building up as they begin to know, understand, and care for the other. Instead, the heavy lifting is immediately swept aside by the simple fact that they are “fated,” with no other work done. In many ways, this robbed the story of any actual romance. The characters feel like an established couple almost from the start.

There was also something really odd going on with the writing in the last portion of this book, as far as the romance goes. Maybe it was just me, but it felt like I, the reader, was almost being drowned by a constant wave of pronouncements of love and devotion from these two characters. It got to the point that I was actually counting to see how many pages we could go before running into the next grand romantic proclamation. And boy, it wasn’t many! I enjoy devoted sentiments as much as the next person, but it almost felt like secondary embarrassment reading these two gush over each other nearly constantly.

All of this said, the book was a fast read, and I think readers who enjoy fated mates more than I do will absolutely love this one. Be warned that the supposed trials are a very minor portion of the story. But if you’re in it mostly for the romance, this does leave much more room to devote to these two, which definitely comes into play. So, while it wasn’t really for me, I do think there’s an audience for this book, especially on the more romance-heavy side of romantasy.

Rating 7: I wanted more from the trials and could have taken fewer declarations of love, all things considered.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Worthy of Fate” isn’t currently on any Goodreads lists, but it should be on Books With Fated Mates.

Kate’s Review: “We Hexed the Moon”

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Book: “We Hexed the Moon” by Mollyhall Seeley

Publishing Info: Saga Press, June 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Bunny meets The Craft in this speculative debut about four best friends who perform a ritual on the moon in a last-ditch attempt to hold onto one another but are forced to reckon with the consequences.

It is the summer after high school graduation, and four island-grown best friends are about to be forced apart by their Plans for the Future. Rather than process the world of expectations bearing down on them or the secrets they’ve kept hidden even from one another, they perform a ritual on the moon in an impulsive fit of teen bravado.

They don’t expect it to actually work.

But suddenly the moon is gone from the sky and at their sleepover, and she’s not interested in going back where she came from. As the balmy August night unfolds, the girls scramble to find a human sacrifice to replace the moon before their world is plunged into chaos.

Equally tender and biting, We Hexed the Moon is coming-of-age at its best, cutting to the very quick of girlhood to reveal hilarious and brutally honest insights about friendship, gender, and desire.

Review: Thank you to Saga Press for sending me an ARC of this novel!

I love seeing stories about tight knit girl friend groups, especially if they are coming of age, in part because I never really got to experience that during my formative teenage years. Yes, I had two other girl friends I was close to and people saw us as a trio, but I was always VERY clearly the odd one out when it came down to it, and my true best friend in high school was a guy. I didn’t really find that solid girls friend group until I was well into college (we called ourselves “The Clever Girls” because of “Jurassic Park” and we were tight and I’m still friends with them all to this day, even if it’s in different capacities due to life), and by that time I was very clear about who I was as a person. But these stories still speak to me as a woman with close girl friendships and who knows how wonderful (and complicated) they can be. “We Hexed the Moon” by Mollyhall Seeley takes on this kind of girl friend group bildungsroman tale and throws in some witch shit and a dark fantasy magical realism bent. Suffice to say, it’s my kinda jam.

Jen, Goldie, Maycie, and Harding are best friends about to go their separate ways after high school. With personal baggage, an existential dread of the next steps and the climate crisis, as well as constant doom and gloom feelings to the life they are inheriting, they decide to hex the moon just for funsies as one last bonding experience. Unfortunately, it works, and the moon not only disappears from the sky, threatening to throw the world into chaos and death, it shows up in the form of a woman who tells them that they need to sacrifice someone to become the new Moon, or else everyone dies. The concept is creative and interesting, and it feels a bit more dark fantasy than horror to me (human sacrifice and end of the world notwithstanding). Seeley splits the story into two timelines, the day before where the friends are clinging to their friendship because they feel it falling apart (be it because of the upcoming change in location or their own baggage with each other), and then the time after they hexed the moon and are having to confront their choices AND the cracks in their friend group. I liked seeing the story unfold and the build up to what choice they were going to make, and found it suspenseful and more tense as time runs closer to running out. I think that it petered out a little bit by the end, but the journey there was still incredibly enjoyable.

But what I enjoyed most about this book were the four girls themselves, and how Seeley explores all of their messiness and complexities and draws out who they are and why they are the way they are. There could have been four girls who fit into obvious stereotypes (Goldie the self centered mean girl, Jen the pretentious stick in the mud, Harding the repressed prude, and Maycie the wholesome naive one), but Seeley takes care to give us perspectives from all of them to see their reasons for their complexities. We have girls who have suffered great loss, like Goldie losing her twin, or a fractured family life, like Jen and her broken relationship with half brother Max as he dives deeper into red pill content, or religious trauma for Harding whose family is repressive, or having to grow up with a lack of structured guidance, like Maycie whose parents all but checked out. There were moments I wanted to shake all of them, but I also felt for all of them too. It shows the way they cling to each other bur resent each other too as they grow apart and change. It’s messy girlhood. It’s heart wrenching at times.

“We Hexed the Moon” is a bittersweet coming of age witchy book. It’s relatable and dreamy, and I think that if you like coming of age girlhood tales it will work for you.

Rating 8: A witchy story about girlhood, anticipated loss, desperation, and coming of age, “We Hexed the Moon” is a magical realism dark fantasy that captures girlhood on the edge of becoming an adult and all the complicated feelings that come with it.

Reader’s Advisory:

“We Hexed the Moon” is included on the Goodreads list “The 52 Book Club 2026: #44: Literary Device- Personification”.

Serena’s Review: “Thistlemarsh”

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Book: “Thistlemarsh” by Moorea Corrigan

Publishing Info: Berkley, April 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: In the wake of World War I, the world is a decidedly unmagical place for Mouse Dunne. She once dreamed of becoming a Faerie anthropologist, but with one telegram, her world shattered. At the Battle of the Somme, her cousin’s body disappeared into the mud, and her brother was left with debilitating shell shock. It was time, she knew, to put aside childish dreams.

When Mouse receives news that her uncle has left her the Faerie-blessed Thistlemarsh Hall, a dilapidated manor in the English countryside, she must leave her brother’s side and return to her childhood home to claim her birthright. But there is a catch in her uncle’s will: If Mouse does not rehabilitate the crumbling house in one month’s time, she will forfeit her inheritance and any hope of caring for her brother.

It quickly becomes clear it’s impossible to repair the manor in the allotted time, until a mysterious Faerie appears with a proposition. He offers to restore Thistlemarsh…for a price. Mouse knows better than to trust a Faerie—especially one so insufferably handsome and arrogant—but she is out of options. There are dark and magical forces at work in the house, and Mouse must confront the ghosts of her past and the secrets of her heart or lose Thistlemarsh, and herself, in the process.

Review: While this wasn’t a perfect read, there was a lot to like about this book! It started off strong right off the bat with the setting and time period. While we see historical fantasy often enough, it still seems rare that we see books set during World War I, especially not as explicitly as this one is. The war isn’t simply mentioned; it’s a driving force behind much of the plot and character arc of the main character. We see the lasting effects in the village with its reduced number of young men. We see the complicated juxtaposition of a woman who has the skills and experience of a trade, but is still living in what is very much a man’s world. And we have the harsh realities of what life after war looks like: the loss of loved ones forever, the lingering pain of veterans who will never recover, and the challenges left to those who care for them and must move life forward.

I also really liked the way this more “true to life” historical fiction narrative was tied together within a world that once took for granted the presence of magic and Faeries, beings who have only fairly recently disappeared from the world. Of course, this is a fantasy book first and foremost, so no one but our main character is surprised when a Faerie shows up fairly quickly to involve himself in the mission to restore the dilapidated Thistelmarsh Hall. Speaking of which, I also really liked the general premise: a young woman given an impossible task; a magical being who comes to her aid with an unlikely bargain. It’s all familiar, but in a nice, familiarly pleasant way.

That said, while I appreciated the familiarity of the story being told, the manner in which it played out felt a bit plodding. The pacing in general was too slow for my taste, and there were numerous “day-in-the-life” sort of scenes that felt like throwaways to me, adding little to the story or character development. This sort of “coziness” doesn’t really work well for me personally, but I know others really enjoy it, so it really depends on your own personal preference how well this aspect of the book works for you. For me, the story itself felt like it was dragging, especially towards the middle, and scenes that I believe were meant to draw me in further to the character fell flat.

I also struggled a bit with the characters and the romance. This was a bit surprising when I looked back on my experience of the book, as I really enjoyed Mouse in the beginning of the story. She was smart, grounded, and driven to succeed where she had been meant to fail. But then, towards the middle of the book, she makes one truly wild and unnecessary decision that felt very out of character and was hard to reconcile with the version of Mouse we’d seen before. I also thought the romance played out in a rather strange way. It had some good things to say about consent, but overall, I didn’t find it very compelling by the time we finally got to the resolution at the end of the book.

Overall, I thought this was a nice historical fantasy novel. It was a bit too slow-paced and cozy for my personal taste, but the historical aspects really carried it through some of the weaker elements. Fans of cozy fantasies that move at a slower pace will likely gobble it up!

Rating 8: The pacing was on the slower side, but the strong historical setting and interesting blending of fantasy and Faeries overall left me quite pleased with it!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Thistlemarsh” can be found on these Goodreads lists: 2026 Debuts and Edwardian Fantasy.

Kate’s Review: “Bone of My Bone”

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Book: “Bone of My Bone” by Johanna van Veen

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, May 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at PLA 2026

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: The year is 1635.

Sister Ursula, a young nun fleeing the ruins of her convent, and Elsebeth, a sharp-witted peasant, escape a band of marauding soldiers and disappear into the Bavarian forest. War scorches the land, and no one survives it alone. Amid the devastation, they find something in the arms of a dying the gilded skull of a saint.

It is said that if you reunite the saint’s skull with her body, a wish will be granted. Desperate for salvation, and each with secret desires of their own, Ursula and Elsebeth follow a ragged map across the blighted countryside. But darkness follows them. A necromancer, drawn to the relic’s power. The saint herself, whispering at night. And as the lines between blessing and curse blur, the women must face a harrowing the magic they seek comes at a cost.

At the journey’s end, they’ll face an impossible choice—one that could tear apart everything they know… or bind them to each other forever.

Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with an ARC of this novel at PLA 2026!

Serena and I had the pleasure to go to the Public Library Association Conference this past April because it was in Minneapolis! How great that we could hop in a car and drive not even fifteen minutes away from my house and attend a book conference (we’ll be driving to ALA this year as well but Chicago is decidedly a longer trip). I restrained myself a bit when it came to ARCs as I knew that ALA was on the horizon, but I was THRILLED to see Johanna van Veen’s newest sapphic horror novel “Bone of My Bone” was available! I have enjoyed her past historical horror novels, and the creepy nun holding a skull on the cover definitely caught my eye. As I read the description I knew that I was going to be in for a treat. A dark and deeply upsetting treat, but a treat nonetheless, because it felt like a nice heady mix of “Evil Dead” and “The Witch” in a lot of ways. So obviously MY THING.

I was positively grinning from ear to ear! (source)

Our story has two protagonists with two perspective chapter types. The first is Sister Ursula, a nun who escaped from her nunnery leaving her sisters behind as mercenaries and soldiers descended. The second is Elsebeth, a peasant who has lost everything in the wake of the war due to violence from the soldiers. The two women team up, and then find what appears to be a Saint’s skull after meeting a dying man in the forest who has it in his possession. Believing that they could reunite it with its body and in turn receive wishes as reward (as they both have things they are desperate for), they go on a journey, the skull speaking to Elsebeth in her dreams. What they don’t know is a necromancer, assisted by a shambling corpse he has enslaved, is also in pursuit. I loved van Veen’s supernatural monsters of choice in this book (more on the real life monsters in a bit), with the main focus being split into two camps: necromancers/witches, and possessed dead called Nachzehers that necromancers use to achieve their own ends. The witchcraft is so appropriate for the time with the fears of witchcraft being incredibly prevalent, and I loved how creepy the necromancer was. As for his Nachzeher Otto, he is a former soldier who is being used against his will, though it becomes clear that he deserves whatever hell the necromancer brings to him (and the necromancer seems to think so too). The witchcraft was so creepy but powerful, and the Nachzeher, a folk monster from German culture, felt so Kandarian Demon Deadite in a lot of ways that I REALLY liked it. And don’t worry; there are other creepy creatures in these pages, though van Veen had me rather emotional with a couple of them due to the horrible ends that some met in life.

And van Veen’s choice of taking place during the Thirty Year’s War is such a dark but fantastic one. I don’t know as much about German history as I would like, especially during this time period, but to me this read as very unflinching and realistic in the horrors that a war that potentially killed 35% of the population would bring forth. This is probably one of the most brutal books I’ve read recently when it comes to the honest approach to the hell that civilians go through during wartime, with starvation, isolation, land loss, murder, and rape being pretty prevalent in the story (though the rape is mostly off page and referred to as opposed to depicted; this book also has a great list of trigger warnings in the back). A lot of the trauma experienced by Ursula and Elsebeth is haunting and emotional, and we explore their journeys of unpacking it and trying to work through it in ways that feel deeply tender and empathetic. Elsebeth in particular has had a terrible go of it, and her crisis of faith in contrast to Ursula faith as a nun bring up interesting and philosophical points as they are trying to reunite a potentially holy skull with its body in hopes of getting one wish. As mentioned I couldn’t help but think about Robert Eggers’s film “The Witch” at times in this book, as witchcraft is certainly a huge theme, but it also tackles just how much brutality women in dire circumstances had to endure, and how loss in one’s faith or the temptation to turn to something new is wholly understandable.

And I also just loved Ursula and Elsebeth’s burgeoning relationship. Their companionship starts due to shared trauma and determination, but then it turns into something so much more and I loved their growing romance. They just complement each other so well, and as they become more and more devoted the stakes just get higher and higher as they are in constant danger. I loved their love story.

“Bone of My Bone” is phenomenal. I cannot recommend it enough to horror fans. If you haven’t read anything by Johanna van Veen, consider this your sign to start.

Rating 9: Brutal and creepy while also being philosophical and tender, “Bone of My Bone” is van Veen’s best story yet. Just incredible.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Bone of My Bone” is included on the Goodreads lists “Queer Books Set Pre-1800”, and “Horror Releases Coming in 2026”.