Tag: 7 Rating

Serena’s Review: “Immortal Dark”

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Book: “Immortal Dark” by Tigest Girma

Publishing Info: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, September 2024

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

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

Book Description: The Cruel Prince meets Ninth House in this dangerously romantic dark academia fantasy, where a lost heiress must infiltrate an arcane society and live with the vampire she suspects killed her family and kidnapped her sister.

It began long before my time, but something has always hunted our family.

Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the arcane society she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her—the very vampire bound to their family, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Sagad.

To find June, Kidan must infiltrate the elite Uxlay University—where students study to ensure peaceful coexistence between humans and vampires and inherit their family legacies. Kidan must survive living with Susenyos—even as he does everything he can to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’s wickedness speaks to Kidan’s own violent nature and tempts her to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill Susenyos at all costs.

When a murder mirroring June’s disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. There she discovers a centuries-old threat—and June could be at the center of it. To save her sister, Kidan must bring Uxlay to its knees and either break free from the horrors of her own actions or embrace the dark entanglements of love—and the blood it requires.

Review: I’ve been looking forward to this one for a few months! While vampires aren’t my favorite supernatural beings, I’ve had a lot of success with some of the recent books featuring them. On top of that, this one added in several other tropes I enjoy: dark academia, gothic fiction, and an enemies-to-lovers romance.

Unfortunately, this one was a bit of a mixed bag for me. But it was by no means a complete loss, and by the time I had finished the book, I had mentally slotted this author into the “worth checking out again” category in my head. So, let’s start with what I did like. The writing had a lot of potential, I think. It got bogged down a bit in info-dumping and confused world-building, but on its own, it was good. There were several turns of phrase and story-building moments that stood out, and the strength of the writing itself is largely what pulled me through when I began to struggle.

I also liked a lot of the ideas that went into this world and its society, especially the dark academia aspects. There was a lot of creativity to be found here, and, as much as I hate the term, the gothic “vibes” were well done. I definitely wanted to learn more about this world, and became increasingly frustrated when the book continued to lack clarity with some of these elements.

Clarity, overall, was a real problem. Which was odd because there were also significant moments early in the novel that felt extremely info-dumpy. There were also a plethora of different plot lines and magic systems that were all introduced early in the book. So even with clunky exposition moments, I still felt unclear on exactly how any of this worked exactly and how these various plotlines were meant to weave together.

I also struggled with the characters themselves. For all that I love enemies-to-lovers romances, I’ve realized that I’m also fairly picky in this regard. Sure, they can be enemies, but there’s a point of animosity that it’s difficult to believe anyone would come back from. And that’s what we had here. These characters HATED one another and were truly terrible to one another, so much so that it was difficult to buy their slow reconciliation. To be fair, the book doesn’t rush this, and even by the end, it’s more of a “hate less” situation than anything.

But the biggest problem here was the struggle I had to become invested in the main character. She was truly terrible at times, and her hatred of the vampires was uncomfortable at times. On one hand, I appreciate books that don’t shy away from demonstrating what bigotry can look like. Many authors simply take the safe route and show villains being bigots and then pat themselves on the back for “tackling” a tough topic. But here, our main character is too truly blinded by her hatred of an entire group of people to engage honestly with the individual in front of her. However, while I appreciate the difficulty of this task, it still left me following a character I struggled to like.

As for the rest of the characters, most of them felt like cardboard cutouts of characters, reading as very flat. And while I think the writing was strong in its descriptive elements for the most part, the dialogue was a mess. There were many times where I honestly have no idea what the characters were even trying to say. It’s like they were talking in riddles simply because it was meant to make them seem deep. But in reality, they were saying nothing and no one talks like this.

This book was a bit all over the place. I think there was a lot of potential here, and perhaps the author will settle in to her style a bit more as she moves forward. But on its own, this book was a bit of a struggle for me to get through. I think it will best work for dark fantasy/romance readers who enjoy fairly extreme versions of enemies-to-lovers romances. Take “The Cruel Prince” dynamic and elevate the cruelty, essentially.

Rating 7: While the descriptive writing was good, the story felt bogged down by too many plot lines and inscrutable magic systems.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Immortal Dark” can be found on these Goodreads lists: The Vampire Renaissance and Magic Schools, Academies & Universities.

Serena’s Review: “Januaries: Stories of Love, Magic, and Betrayal”

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Book: “Januaries: Stories of Love, Magic, and Betrayal” by Olivie Blake

Publishing Info: Tordotcom, October 2024

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

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

Book Description: Once upon a time in a land far, far away, the tutelary spirit to a magical bridge rapidly approaches burnout. Meanwhile, congress enacts a complex auditing system designed to un-waste your youth, a banished fairy answers a Craigslist ad, a Victorian orphan gains literacy for her occult situationship, and a multiverse assassin contemplates the one who got away. Escape the slow trudge of mortality with these magical ruminations on life, death, and the love (or revenge) that outlasts both, featuring modified fairytales, contemporary heists, absurdist poetry, and at least one set of actual wedding vows.

Review: As promised, we’re back with round two of my foray into short story collections this week! My first few experiences with this author were incredibly positive, but as I’ve read more and more, I’ve found myself struggling to connect with her writing style and becoming frustrated with what feels like a lack of substance in service of style. That being the case, I was curious to see what a short story collection by this author would look like. Would be more of the former or the latter?

Unfortunately, I have to report that this one fell largely in the latter category. However, one of the benefits of short story collections is that there are multiple options of stories with which to connect. So while the novel as a whole fell flat, I did have a few favorites that I’d like to dive into before getting into the rest of it. One of my favorite stories was one that showed up early in the collection. It told of a magical bridge and its watcher who was obligated to offer and grant certain types of wishes to any who found it. Over the course of the story, we see the young woman who is this guardian slowly become disillusioned to the sorts of wishes many people are asking for (there’s a recurring group of people who get into a lot of trouble with contradictory wishes). She also slowly begins to fall in love with a young man who, against all odds, continues to find the bridge over and over again, even though it always changes locations. It’s a sweet story and it played well with the tried and true fairytale concept of “wishes gone bad.”

However, even here, this story illustrated one of my recurring frustrations with this collection. By the end, it just sort of…well…ends. More over, the way the ending for this one is written, it comes across as ambiguous with the intent to be “deep,” which, instead, just leaves it actually feeling frustrating and pretentious. Over and over, throughout this book, there were stories that had interesting worlds and characters, but there was something about either A.) the style of writing or B.) the way the themes were presented (often in this ambiguous, quasi-intellectual manner) that made them read as, again, pretentious. And too often, the stories would end abruptly, and I was left wondering what the point of it all was.

Writing short stories is incredibly hard. Not only is it such a short length within which to work, but I do think there is this false idea floating around out there that these sorts of tales must be “artsy” and “deep” and “say things.” Here, we see this author fall into this trap. Instead of simply telling good stories, she seems to get bogged down in these secondary concerns. There would be small nuggets within most of the stories, but too often these were lost in the mess of everything else. There was another interesting one early in the book that dealt with a character essentially getting paid their entire life’s earnings early in life, and then be obligated to “work it off” from age 30 on. This was such an interesting concept, especially as it played out by increasing the main character’s anxiety rather than offering the promised freedom. But then, again, there were a bunch of other themes jammed in there, added characters who felt like they should be more important than they were, and an ending where it felt like the entire exercise was rather meaningless and a waste of a good concept. It’s hard to really describe, but these were the sorts of problems that plagued most of the book.

Overall, I think this collection was solidly just ok. None of the stories were outright bad, and a few of them I enjoyed for the most part. However, I think the author’s writing and approach to story-telling left something to be desired, with “vibes” and “style” too often taking precedent over simply writing a good story. If you’re a big fan of this author’s work, this still might be worth checking out. But if you’re only mildly interested in short story collections (like me), than this one may end up feeling lackluster.

Rating 7: Too heavy on the quasi-intellectual vibes to be a truly enjoyable read. Though there were still a few gems hidden away within.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Januaries: Stories of Love, Magic, and Betrayal” can be found on this Goodreads list: 52 Book Club 2024: Summer Mini Challenge – 100m Sprint: A Short Story Collection

Serena’s Review: “The Scarlet Throne”

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Book: “The Scarlet Throne” by Amy Leow

Publishing Info: Orbit, September 2024

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

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

Book Description: Binsa is a “living goddess,” chosen by the gods to dispense both mercy and punishment from her place on the Scarlet Throne. But her reign hides a deadly secret. Rather than channeling the wisdom of an immortal deity, she harbors a demon.

But now her priests are growing suspicious. When a new girl, Medha, is selected to take over her position, Binsa and her demon strike a To magnify his power and help her wrest control from the priests, she will sacrifice human lives. She’ll do anything not to end up back on the streets, forgotten and alone. But how much of her humanity is she willing to trade in her quest for power? Deals with demons are rarely so simple.

Review: Would it be shallow to admit that I initially picked this one up to check it out further because of the cool black panther on the cover? Yes? Well, I definitely didn’t do that then…That aside, I also was intrigued by the themes hinted at it in the summary. The lengths one will go to to hold on to power, always an interesting topic!

This was a strange read. On one hand, I very much appreciated the character work that went into it. This is a dark look at the lengths to which people will go not only to survive but to cling to the power they have on hand. Much of the plot (such as it was) is caught up in this character study and much page time is devoted to the exploration of these topics. So on one hand, I appreciate the fact that the author didn’t shy away from the realities of the sorts of characters she was writing. The characters were allowed to go down dark paths and commit vile actions.

That said, however, it didn’t make for a very enjoyable reading experience. Not only were many of the characters incredibly unlikable, but there were also aspects of the decision making that were very frustrating. I get the idea, that those who are operating in survival mode are just looking to get through the present in whatever way works. However, very early on it became obvious that these tactics would never work in the long run, so it was frustrating seeing characters make decisions again and again that would only lead to discovery and disaster. Again, yes, this is a very true-to-life mode of behavior, but it made for an aggravating reading experience.

I also was a bit disappointed to discover that this was the first book in a series (a trilogy, I believe). The ending to this book is tragic, as one would expect given the nature of the story. And I think there would have been something more powerful about allowing the story to end there. As it stands, the promise of more to come almost works against what this story was trying to do on its own. I feel like the author could have easily cut it off a few pages earlier, and then just tacked on the ending of this book to the beginning of the next. This way, this book could have read as a stand-alone OR as the first in a series.

In the end, this was an odd reading experience for me. Quality-wise, I think this book is fairly high. The author set out to tell a story about a morally dark character and succeeded in thoroughly committing to that theme. However, for a character-driven book, I had a hard time enjoying it simply because I disliked so many of the characters so much. Readers who enjoy dark fantasy should probably still give this one a go, even if it wasn’t really for me.

Rating 7: The story tackles a dark character and explores themes of power and survival, but given the nature of these topics, I struggled to truly enjoy this read.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Scarlet Throne” isn’t currently on any Goodreads lists, but it should be on Main Characters Who Aren’t Afraid To Get Their Hands Dirty.

Kate’s Review: “The Lightning Bottles”

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Book: “The Lightning Bottles” by Marissa Stapley

Publishing Info: Simon & Schuster, September 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC at ALAAC24.

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

Book Description: The author of New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club pick Lucky returns with a love letter to rock ‘n’ roll and star-crossed love, following Jane Pyre’s road trip around Europe as she attempts to find out what really happened to her partner in love and music, who disappeared without a trace years earlier, leaving Jane to pick up the pieces.

Jane Pyre was once one half of one of the most famous rock ‘n’ roll duos in the world, The Lightning Bottles. Years later, she’s perhaps the most hated (and least understood) woman in music. She was never as popular with fans as her bandmate (and soulmate) Elijah—even if Jane was the one who wrote the songs that catapulted The Lightning Bottles to instant, dizzying fame, first in the Seattle grunge scene, and then around the world.

But then Elijah disappeared and everything came crashing down. Even now, years after Elijah vanished, Jane is universally blamed and reviled by the public. In an attempt to get some peace and quiet, Jane rents a house in a remote part of Germany where she knows she won’t be disturbed. But on the day she arrives, she’s confronted by her new next-door neighbor, a sullen teenaged girl named Hen who just so happens to be a Lightning Bottles superfan—and who claims to have a piece of information that might solve the mystery of what happened to Elijah, and whether he is, in fact, still alive and leaving messages for Jane after all these years.

A cross-continent road trip about two misunderstood outsiders brought together by their shared love of music, interwoven with flashbacks to the beginnings of Jane and Elijah’s love story and meteoric rise, The Lightning Bottles is a love story, a celebration of rock ‘n’ roll, and a searing portrait of the cost of fame.

Review: Thank you to Simon & Schuster for providing me with an ARC of this novel!

I was a bit young to really get into the grunge era of music, but I do remember some of my elementary school classmates listening to Nirvana, and some of my tween friends worshiping Kurt Cobain in middle school a few years after his death. But by high school I was very much aware of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love and their short lived, dramatic, but ultimately true romance, in part due to the fact I was hyperfocusing on The Sex Pistols and there were lots of comparisons between Sid and Nancy and Kurt and Courtney. So I was very familiar with the pop culture zeitgeist around that when I heard a description of “The Lightning Bottles” by Marissa Stapley at the Simon & Schuster Fall Preview panel at ALAAC24. I loved the idea of a road trip mystery as a former rock star goes on a journey to perhaps find her husband and musical partner who disappeared, and to come to terms with the way that fame shaped and in some ways destroyed them both. Especially since it sounded like it was going to perhaps do some unpacking of Kurt and Courtney through the characters of Elijah and Jane.

I had been expecting more of a mystery, but what I got was basically “Eddie and the Cruisers” meets Kurt and Courtney. And that’s not too much of a complaint! I do enjoy the idea of a mystery of a beloved rockstar disappearing, and his controversial wife/bandmate going on a journey to try and see if he is still alive (with scrappy teenager in tow), and “The Lightning Bottles” does deliver an interesting plot with lots of twists and turns. But this book is more about artistry, the price of fame, and how sometimes love isn’t enough to keep two damaged people from causing more damage towards each other. Stapley definitely takes inspiration from Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and his marriage to Hole frontwoman (and perhaps one of the most hated women in music) Courtney Love, but Elijah and Jane, Jane especially, stand on their own two feet. I liked learning their love story through the flashbacks and the transcripts of their chat room conversations, and while I don’t think I got to know Elijah as much as I did Jane (which is to be expected given it’s really her story at its heart), I REALLY got to know Jane, and I really loved Jane by the end. I do wish that there was a little bit more mystery at the forefront though. Even “Eddie and the Cruisers” had some tense moments in regards to what happend to Eddie, even if it was ultimately about Tom Berenger rediscovering himself.

And that may be my one complaint in this book; Stapley may be a little TOO forgiving of Jane, and in turn perhaps her inspiration (an author’s note makes it fairly clear that Stapley really wanted to champion Courtney Love). Please don’t misunderstand me, I absolutely believe that a lot of the animosity towards Love, especially when it comes to Kurt Cobain, is unfair, unfounded, and steeped in misogyny, especially since we’ve seen this kind of thing before in rock and roll narratives of a horrible woman ruining a band when that’s just not founded at the end of the day (Yoko Ono comes to mind). I love that Stapley wanted to be sure to show that Jane was so wholly misunderstood, and that it was very unfair that Elijah’s problems were never laid upon Elijah and only on Jane. Especially when those problems were causing JANE problems in her own right. But that also makes Jane a little less interesting by making her flaws easily explained away, when her real life counterpart is VERY flawed for reasons that go waaaay beyond the bullshit she had to endure in regards Cobain. And I felt that by denying Jane some flaws that had some bite, it denied her some more complexity that she probably could have used.

As a whole I enjoyed “The Lightning Bottles”. It’s a love letter to a musical era, it’s an enjoyable love story, and it has some emotional beats that caught me off guard.

Rating 7: I was expecting more of a mystery but instead found a compelling love story about fame, music, and the highs and lows of being in love as an artist on the verge of greatness, or tragedy.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Lightning Bottles” isn’t on many Goodreads lists yet, but it would fit in on “Best Rock and Roll Novels”.

Kate’s Review: “Dearest”

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Book: “Dearest” by Jacquie Walters

Publishing Info: Mulholland Books, September 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from a panel at ALAAC24.

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

Book Description: A new mom in need of help opens her door to her long-estranged mother—only to invite something much darker inside—in this “fast-paced and frightening debut” (Rachel Harrison) about the long shadows cast by family secrets, perfect for readers of Grady Hendrix or Ashley Audrain.

Flora is a new mom enamored of her baby girl, Iris, even if she arrived a few weeks early. With her husband still deployed, Flora navigates the newborn stage alone. But as the sleepless nights pass in the loneliness of their half-empty home, the edges of her reality begin to blur.

Just as Flora becomes convinced she is losing her mind, a surprising guest shows up: Flora’s own mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken in years. Can they mend their fraught relationship? Or is there more Flora’s mother isn’t telling her about the events that led to their estrangement?

As stranger and scarier events unfold, Flora begins to suspect the house is not as empty as she once thought. She must determine: is her hold on reality slipping dangerously away? Or is she, in fact, the only thing standing between a terrifying visitor and her baby? 

Review: Thank you to Mulholland Books for providing me with an ARC at ALAAC24!

I’ve touched on here about those early days of being a new Mom and how stressful it can be. I was actually very lucky during those first few months of being a new parent, as I have a great support system in town, my husband was able to take a fair amount of time off of work, and we were able to split care up pretty evenly between us (though once COVID hit a few months after she was born the isolation and stress did get to be a bit much!). But I know that I was very lucky, and that even though it wasn’t easy, it wasn’t a nightmare, like it can be for some. I love that more books are talking about this, especially horror novels, and “Dearest” by Jacquie Walters is one of the newest to take motherhood and turn it into a horror story.

There is a bit of a supernatural bent to this book that I don’t really want to spoil, but I will say that this was surprisingly the weaker thread of the novel. That’s not to say that it was bad or poorly done. I did enjoy the way that Walters brought in these elements and how she built it up, specifically an element regarding sleep paralysis and Night Hags, and how she wove them into the story at hand. It also led to a pretty well done twist that I didn’t see coming at all, which made me go back and look for the clues. But I do think that it undercut the power of the horrors that were about Flora dealing with a newborn as a new mom while also dealing with her estranged mother whom she called for help, and who has always had a cruel streak that is popping up again as they reunite.

But what really worked for me were the themes of postpartum depression, the stresses of new parents, specifically mothers, and generational trauma that can fester and pass down from person to person. I found Flora’s experiences as a newly postpartum mother with a newborn and little to no support (as her husband is deployed and delayed getting home) to be heart wrenching, incredibly tense, and in some ways pretty relatable. Walters shows how much it can be a struggle, and how mothers feel like they aren’t supposed to see it as a struggle and therefore it just gets worse and worse until, in some very tragic instances, the unthinkable happens. She also puts very realistic problems like the pressures to breastfeed (even with painful infections), the way that some people dismiss a mother’s stress, the sleep deprivation, and the societal pressures to be a perfect loving mother from the jump, at the forefront and pulls out the tension and the horrors of simply being a new mother in a culture that doesn’t offer as much support as it could. Add in the way that Flora’s mother, whom she reaches out to in desperation, needles, picks at, and has damaged her adult daughter, and it made this reader very, very tense. I’ve said it many times in the past couple of years, but with many women in this country being forced into pregnancies and motherhood due to a lack of reproductive rights, these kinds of stories are especially chilling these days.

Overall I enjoyed “Dearest”. I would have liked a little more, but it’s another effective horror story about motherhood.

Rating 7: A haunting tale of motherhood, generational trauma, and how a lack of support can drive a mother to do things she’d never dream of, “Dearest” is a tense book that felt all too real at times.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Dearest” is included on the Goodreads list “September 2024 Horror”.

Kate’s Review: “The Night Guest”

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Book: “The Night Guest” by Hildur Knútsdóttir & Mary Robinette Kowal (Translator)

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, September 2024

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

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.0rg | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Hildur Knutsdottir’s The Night Guest is an eerie and ensnaring story set in contemporary Reykjavík that’s sure to keep you awake at night.

Iðunn is in yet another doctor’s office. She knows her constant fatigue is a sign that something’s not right, but practitioners dismiss her symptoms and blood tests haven’t revealed any cause.

When she talks to friends and family about it, the refrain is the same ― have you tried eating better? exercising more? establishing a nighttime routine? She tries to follow their advice, buying everything from vitamins to sleeping pills to a step-counting watch. Nothing helps.

Until one night Iðunn falls asleep with the watch on, and wakes up to find she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night . . .

What is happening when she’s asleep? Why is she waking up with increasingly disturbing injuries? And why won’t anyone believe her?

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

Earlier this summer I went into the doctor for some weird symptoms that seemed to come out of nowhere. I was experiencing head spinning and elevated heart rate at times, mostly when driving, and I was worried that something was wrong. But after running tests and even putting me on a heart monitor for two weeks, the doctor wasn’t able to find anything out of the ordinary (and the symptoms generally resolved), and I ended up having to basically chalk it up to anxiety (and given that I had a massive anxiety episode a couple months later that was probably the case). But in the moment I was very stressed about symptoms that weren’t really explainable no matter how supportive my provider was (and she was!). So there were some aspects of “The Night Guest” by Hildur Knútsdóttir that were personally very relatable to me, what with the question of medical mysteries and the stress that comes with it. Luckily I can say that the relatability ended there, as this novel was supremely, SUPREMELY, creepy, and just got creepier as it went on.

I loved how weird and creepy this book is. We are following the perspective of Iðunn, a woman living in Reykjavik who has been exhausted and feeling poorly, although her medical tests are coming up without any answers. But after she buys a watch with step counts, and the counts over night are in the tens of thousands in spite of her thinking she’s asleep, the first person POV novella slowly spirals as she becomes more and more incoherent and unhinged. Knútsdóttir really captures a deeply disturbing tone, starting with the already kind of upsetting (but also too real) scenario of a woman dealing with medical issues that no one else can really explain, and how hopeless that can feel, and going deeper and deeper int weird territory as phantom steps, weird injuries, and other odd things begin popping up that feel connected to Iðunn. Since it’s in the first person we really get into Iðunn’s mind and slowly learn her backstory as her perspective is crumbling more and more. I absolutely loved how bananas this descent was, and how we do learn things about her and her background and part of what may be driving her mental state as these bizarre things are happening to her. It’s very much an unreliable narration story, but Knútsdóttir hits the exact right notes to make it abjectly horrifying the longer is goes on until even the reader feels like they are going mad.

One qualm? I did find the ending to be a little confusing and perhaps a little too quick. There is always a risk of going too deep into the weeds with an unreliable narrator that is perhaps losing their mental faculties, and I think that’s what may have happened here. It’s a hard balance to strike when trying to keep a consistent tone to a character, but also having to maybe explain SOMETHING as the story wraps up. I didn’t feel like we really got that there, though I do understand that it may be a bit difficult to do so with the trajectory that Iðunn took and where she was by the ending. But that being said, it kind of made the ending more of a thud than a stuck landing.

But at the end of the day I found “The Night Guest” to be really weird and unsettling in a really good way. Should more of Knútsdóttir’s works be translated I would definitely seek it out, what a strange and unique story this was.

Rating 7: Super creepy and very unnerving, but a frantic and confusing ending bumped my score down just a little bit.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Night Guest” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2024”.

Serena’s Review: “The Phoenix Keeper”

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

Book: “The Phoenix Keeper” by S. A. Maclean

Publishing Info: Orbit, August 2024

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

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

Book Description: As head phoenix keeper at a world-renowned zoo for magical creatures, Aila’s childhood dream of conserving critically endangered firebirds seems closer than ever. There’s just one glaring caveat: her zoo’s breeding program hasn’t functioned for a decade. When a tragic phoenix heist sabotages the flagship initiative at a neighboring zoo, Aila must prove her derelict facilities are fit to take the reins.

But saving an entire species from extinction requires more than stellar animal handling skills. Carnivorous water horses, tempestuous thunderhawks, mischievous dragons… Aila has no problem wrangling beasts. But mustering the courage to ask for help from the hotshot griffin keeper at the zoo’s most popular exhibit? Virtually impossible.

Especially when that hotshot griffin keeper happens to be her arch-rival from college: Luciana, an annoyingly brooding and insufferable know-it-all with the face of a goddess who’s convinced that Aila’s beloved phoenix would serve their cause better as an active performer rather than as a passive conservation exhibit. With the world watching and the threat of poachers looming, Aila’s success is no longer merely a matter of keeping her job…

She is the keeper of the phoenix, and the future of a species – and her love life – now rests on her shoulders.

Review: There was a lot to like about the summary for this one. The concept alone sounded intriguing and unlike anything I had read before. Add in a dash of romance and some fantasy creatures, and my interest was thoroughly piqued! I’m also on the never-ending quest to hone in exactly what makes certain cozy fantasies work for me while other don’t. This one may have clarified one factor for me!

Unfortunately, that clarification fell on the more negative side. But let’s start with some positives! Overall, I very much enjoyed the concept of this book. The ins-and-outs of that fantastical zoo were all interesting and exciting to explore. For a book that is light on plot, the author took great advantage of all the unique aspects of her setting and the magical creatures that populated it.

I also enjoyed the main character, Aila for the most part. I thought the depiction of her introversion and social anxiety were done well, neatly exploring both concepts without reducing Aila to nothing but these traits. There wasn’t necessarily a lot of new depth to these topics, however as they are both, especially social anxiety, topics that have been well-covered recently. This is, of course, a decided improvement on the past where characters like this were never seen on the page. However, it does present a challenge to authors going forward to distinguish their own characters and stories from a more dense market. This one wasn’t bad, by any means, but it also did not stand out from the crowd.

The romance was also perfectly serviceable. It hit all of the predictable points that one expects from an “enemies to lovers” romance, and the two characters had good chemistry. That said, while I think romance stories like this often follow distinct patterns, this one was a bit too predictable. That, combined with the lighter plot, did make the entire reading experience feel a bit thin.

And, finally, for my revelation about cozy fantasies (and perhaps cozy-any genre): I think it’s the day-to-day aspect that I personally struggle with. I can think of several authors who write cozy fantasies that I very much enjoy. But when I think about the stories themselves, they all are still heavy on plot while deploying an overall “cozy” style to the writing and world-building. On the other hand, cozy fantasies like this, which are light on plot and tell a very day-to-day story are more of a struggle for me. Of course, this is a very subjective take, and there are readers out there who enjoy this sort of book. But while I like the vibes of cozy fiction, I do still need an actual story attached. And this, like others in the same subgenre, had very little of that to speak of. What action we did see was confined to the last quarter of the book and very predictable. The rest of the book was devoted to the minutia of Aila’s life and, frankly, often bored me.

So, I think readers’ enjoyment of this book will very much come down to their personal feelings on day-to-day type stories. If you like them, this is the book for you (though I still think there are better options to be had, even in this sub-sub-genre)! If you don’t, not so much.

Rating 7: The book accomplishes what it sets out to do: tell a day-t0-day cozy fantasy/romance. However, it fails to bring anything new to the subgenre or the themes its attempting to cover.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Phoenix Keeper” can be found on this Goodreads list: Best books of August, 2024

Kate’s Review: “Haunt Sweet Home”

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Book: “Haunt Sweet Home” by Sarah Pinsker

Publishing Info: Tordotcom, September 2024

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

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

Book Description: On the set of a kitschy reality TV show, staged scares transform into unnerving reality in this spooky ghost story from multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Sarah Pinsker.

“Don’t talk to day about what we do at night.”

When aimless twenty-something Mara lands a job as the night-shift production assistant on her cousin’s ghost hunting/home makeover reality TV show Haunt Sweet Home, she quickly determines her new role will require a healthy attitude toward duplicity. But as she hides fog machines in the woods and improvises scares to spook new homeowners, a series of unnerving incidents on set and a creepy new coworker force Mara to confront whether the person she’s truly been deceiving and hiding from all along―is herself.

Eerie and empathetic, Haunt Sweet Home is a multifaceted, supernatural exploration of finding your own way into adulthood, and into yourself.

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

Well, Summer is pretty much over, and while I do admit I will miss the pool and other outdoor activities as the temperatures drop, Autumn is my favorite season and it’s no contest. I am also one of those weirdos who decides that Halloween Season begins the moment that Labor Day ends, and what better way to celebrate that than with a spooky book? And if you are looking for a spooky book that isn’t TOO spooky, well then do I have a good title for you: “Haunt Sweet Home” by Sarah Pinsker! Are you kind of interested in getting in the Halloween mood, but don’t want to dive in too deep, either because you aren’t a lunatic like I am or because you like your horror a little on the lighter side? Then look no further.

This is a novella, so it’s a pretty quick read, but for being quick it hit all of the correct beats and parsed out an engaging and at times eerie ghost story while also effectively taking on mediocre reality TV shows. I never got into home improvement shows, but I do have some experience with ghost hunting TV, and “Haunt Sweet Home” nails the false pretenses of reality TV and the way it can manipulate those who participate and those who consume. We follow Mara, a twenty something who hasn’t found her lot in life yet and is convinced to join her cousin’s incredibly successful reality TV show where he not only renovates and makes over houses, but also investigates hauntings. Mara becomes a lower rung PA and finds out how the sausage gets made on a show like this, but also encounters some strange, and perhaps otherworldly, characters along the way. It’s a ghost story that has a genuine self discovery theme, and I found it to be honest about the frustrations of not knowing your path as well as honest about the faux imagry of reality TV. I especially liked the way that Pinsker frames the novella with excerpts of pivotal episode transcripts for “Haunt Sweet Home”, and how they seem to show one thing, but then slowly reveal something else as the story goes on. As someone who doesn’t watch a lot of reality TV but is also deeply fascinated with the genre and how produced it actually is I really enjoyed the peek behind the curtain here.

And while I didn’t find this book particularly scary, I don’t think that being scary was the goal. And that worked in its favor, as the coziness of this tale is hard to deny and the journey of self discovery is pretty well done. Mara’s encounters with the supernatural are pretty clear if you know what to look for from the jump, and even when they are revealed its less a surprise and more of a puzzle piece that helps explain her motivations going forward, and a fairly enjoyable arc for our somewhat aimless protagonist. It’s the kind of spooky-esque read that would be perfect for people who don’t really like super scary stories, but want something to pick up during Autumn as the leaves turn and Halloween creeps up upon us. Mara had a tendency to be a bit frustrating at times, but I don’t think that was unintentional, and because of that it worked pretty well for the narrative.

Overall, if you want a more gentle and cozy horror tale for the upcoming spooky season, “Haunt Sweet Home” is a pretty good option. It’s quick, it’s charming, it has vibes for the Halloween fiends who want gentler fare for sure.

Rating 7: An introspective ghost story about bad reality TV and self discovery, “Haunt Sweet Home” is a quick read perfect for the upcoming Autumn season.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Haunt Sweet Home” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in with other Cozy Horror books.

Serena’s Review: “Mistress of Lies”

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Book: “Mistress of Lies” by K. M. Enright

Publishing Info: Orbit, August 2024

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

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

Book Description: The daughter of a powerful but disgraced Blood Worker, Shan LeClaire has spent her entire life perfecting her blood magic, building her network of spies, and gathering every scrap of power she could. Now, to protect her brother, she assassinates their father and takes her place at the head of the family. And that is only the start of her revenge.

Samuel Hutchinson is a bastard with a terrible gift. When he stumbles upon the first victim of a magical serial killer, he’s drawn into the world of magic and intrigue he’s worked so hard to avoid – and is pulled deeply into the ravenous and bloodthirsty court of the vampire king.

Tasked by the Eternal King to discover the identity of the killer cutting a bloody swath through the city, Samuel, Shan and mysterious Royal Bloodworker Isaac find themselves growing ever closer to each other. But Shan’s plans are treacherous, and as she lures Samuel into her complicated web of desire, treason and vengeance, he must decide if the good of their nation is worth the cost of his soul.

Review: This is another case where I’ll admit that I was initially drawn in by the unique cover art. Even without the book description or the title, it’s pretty easy to understand the general tone of the book with one simple look! And after looking into it further, I found a lot of other elements that typically intrigue me. Morally grey heroines! Spies! Revenge tales!

To start with the pros, I did like some of the original world-building elements of this story, especially its use of vampires. Not only are vampires one of the most popular supernatural beings to pop up in fiction for centuries, but they are having a bit of a resurgence here in 2024, with numerous titles releasing this year focusing on vampires in one way or another. So to introduce a fresh-feeling take on a society in which they exist is worth noting and praising! I really enjoyed learning about this society, with the Blood Workers, blood magic, and the lowly unblooded. If anything, I’d say that the strength of these ideas was let down in the rather lackluster focus that was given to them. For having one of the main characters being unblooded himself, I felt like we were still left with very little insight into the actual lives of these people.

In a similar vein (ha!), I found myself liking the idea of many of these characters more than the characters themselves. For one thing, the story quickly fell into the trap of telling the reader a lot of facts and traits about the characters, but then proceeded to roll out a plot in which the reader never saw any of this in action. The most obvious example is Shan herself. The story opens with an action-packed bang, with Shan finally committing step one of her plan for vengeance. It’s exciting and sets Shan up as an interesting character with much more to come! But, unfortunately, that very first scene is ultimately the peak of her entire arc. We’re told repeatedly that she’s a mastermind, but as the plot bottoms out towards the middle, the reader is left to reconcile what they’ve been told to believe about the character with the reality of Shan’s very poor decision-making throughout.

This is a polyamory romance, as well, which I think requires even more skill from the author to properly set up and convey. Personally, I don’t love polyamory romances, but that’s a “me thing” as far as my own preferences for the types of love stories I enjoy and thus I didn’t factor this into my rating. That said, I do think that, again, the reader is often told that these character have chemistry, rather than showing it in any meaningful way. There seems to be insta-lust every way one looks, and I couldn’t buy any of these characters as truly having deep feelings for one another, in any combination.

Overall, this was a bit of a lackluster reader for me. There was a lot of potential in the world-building, and the entire thing started out on a high note. But as the story continued, the plot began to feel thin on the ground and the character inconsistencies became difficult to ignore. If you’re a bit fan of poplyamory romances, this may be worth checking out (again, as I don’t love this sort of romance novel, I don’t have a lot of comparison to bring in to my evaluation). But as a general fantasy title, I think there have been better vampire novels all around.

Rating 7: An exciting start and a creative world were let down by some lack-luster characterization in its protagonists.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Mistress of Lies” can be found on these Goodreads lists: The Vampire Renaissance and Queer Polyamory.

Kate’s Review: “Practical Rules for Cursed Witches”

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Book: “Practical Rules for Cursed Witches” by Kayla Cottingham

Publishing Info: Delacorte Press, August 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC24.

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

Book Description: Magic is in Delilah Bea’s blood. Her absentee father is the world’s most famous cursebreaker, while all the women in her family are fated to never find true love. So when Delilah graduates her magical training and must complete her Calling, she has the perfect task in mind—to break the Bea family curse.

But Delilah’s Calling is hijacked by Kieran Pelumbra, a member of the wealthiest and most powerful family in the country, and breaking his curse suddenly becomes her official assignment. Every generation, a pair of Pelumbra twins are doomed, with one twin draining the other of their life and magic. Each day, Kieran grows weaker while Briar gets closer to…something monstrous.

As Delilah and the twins set out on their quest, they quickly realize that breaking the Pelumbra curse isn’t going to be simple. For one, the Pelumbra family doesn’t actually want their curse broken—and they’ve sent hunters after them to ensure they fail. Secondly…it’s Briar. There’s just something about her that gets under Delilah’s skin and makes her want to kiss the perpetually grumpy look off her face. But with time running out for the twins and Delilah’s own curse getting in the way, they may not stand a chance of finding their Happily Ever After.

Review: Thank you to Delacorte and Penguin Random House for giving me an ARC at ALAAC24!

One of the books that I was very much on the hunt for at ALAAC24 (there were many, mind you) was the newest novel from Kayla Cottingham. I really enjoyed their previous two YA books, which were both horror stories with some Sapphic romance themes, and I found them both to be engaging and well done. When I heard that their next book, “Practical Rules for Cursed Witches”, was going to be witch centered I was very excited, for obvious reasons to those who know me. What I didn’t expect was that it was going to be a departure from the horror genre completely, and instead would be a cozy fantasy romance. It didn’t make me less excited, but it did make me wonder if my expectations were going to be a bit dashed. And the answer to that is ‘yes’. But not in a bad way!

The first thing that stood out for me is that even though I don’t usually gravitate towards fantasy, the coziness of this one really worked for me. It’s not too shocking given that I have liked other cozy fantasies as of late like “Legends and Lattes”, and much like that one this book just felt really comforting and filled with a certain whimsy. Our protagonist is Delilah, a young witch who wants to make her Calling (a final trial to fully come into her powers) about breaking her family curse (in which the women in her family are doomed to be forgotten by their romantic partners), but has it hijacked by Kieran Pelumbra, who has his own family curse he wants rid of. Delilah is the daughter of a well known Cursebreaker (though she never met him), and Kieran wants her to break the curse that is siphoning his powers to his estranged twin Briar. I’m already into it in terms of the basic groundwork, and Cottingham easily builds this magical world and all of its systems, making all of it easy to f0llow and easy to invest in. The magical society is well established and I really enjoyed all of the witchy moments in this book.

I also really liked the ‘found family’ aspects of this story, as well as the way that Cottingham writes the romance between Delilah and Briar. It checks a lot of boxes for my romance preferences, as I really liked the antagonism between the two at the start and how they slowly start to understand each other because it makes for a very satisfying pay off. Cottingham’s biggest strength in their works is how well they piece together characters and relationships, and I so loved seeing this group of friends come together to try and save Kieran and Briar from their family curse, and finding connections with each other along the way. These kinds of themes are the things that really make fantasies work for me, and this one is SO sweet and so charming. It strikes me as the kind of book you would want to read in the Fall when you are trying to find some of the homier and cozier aspects of the season, and I’ve said ‘cozy’ so many times because this is just the epitome of that for me. And while it’s true that this being a fantasy story means that it does have personal drawbacks for me as a reader, I know so many people who love the genre who would probably love this book. I’m thoroughly impressed that Cottingham jumped so easily from horror to this story.

“Practical Rules for Cursed Witches” is a sweet novel that showcases Kayla Cottingham’s talents as an author beyond their usual genres (or at least the genres I’m used to). I love being surprised by a book and this one really achieved that.

Rating 7: A charming cozy fantasy romance from a YA author I really enjoy, “Practical Rules for Cursed Witches” is the perfect read if you want a cozy fall book!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Practical Rules for Cursed Witches” is included on the Goodreads lists “Sapphic Fiction 2024”, and “August 2024 Romantasy Releases”.