Tag: 8 Rating

Serena’s Review: “Snake-Eater”

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Book: “Snake-Eater” by T. Kingfisher

Publishing Info: 47North, December 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: Netgalley audiobook!

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

Book Description: When Selena travels to the remote desert town of Quartz Creek in search of her estranged Aunt Amelia, she is desperate and short of options. Fleeing an unhappy marriage, she has exactly twenty-seven dollars to her name, and her only friend in the world is her dog, Copper.

On arrival, Selena learns Amelia is dead. But the inhabitants of Quartz Creek are only too happy to have a new resident. Out of money and ideas, Selena sees no harm staying in her aunt’s lovely house for a few weeks, tending to her garden and enjoying the strange, desolate beauty of the desert. The people are odd, but friendly, and eager to help Selena settle into her new home.

But Quartz Creek’s inhabitants share their town with others, old gods and spirits whose claim to the land long predates their human neighbours. Selena finds herself pursued by disturbing apparitions, visitations that come in the night and seem to want something from her.

Aunt Amelia owed a debt. Now her god has come to collect.

Review: I love how prolific T. Kingfisher is! Not only that, but she writes across a variety of genres, from fantasy to romance to horror! And here, while still including horror elements, she seems to be dabbling in the cozy subgenre as well! As such, this wasn’t perhaps my all-time favorite book of hers, but there was still much to enjoy!

For one thing, I very much enjoyed our main character Selena and the low-key exploration of emotionally abusive relationships and their impact on an individual’s self-esteem and ability to interact with the world. We often see examples of more overt forms of abuse, but sometimes these quieter versions are all the more horrific for the fact that they go unnoticed by others. What’s more, they are the sort where the victim often struggles to even name the reality of what’s going on, gaslighting themselves into thinking that as long as they aren’t being physically harmed, nothing could be wrong. Selena’s arc and slow recovery from this treatment was so well done.

Of course, her journey was much aided by the phenomenal cast of found family characters whom she meets and befriends in her new hometown. There was such variety and charm to all of these characters that I’d have a hard time picking a favorite! A few standouts would include the priest (a character who had some surprisingly reflective comments on religion) as well as the wacky radio DJ! I also enjoyed the villain of the story, in particular the rather tongue-in-cheek “monster romance” bits of it all!

The horror elements were quite light, so readers who enjoy Kingfisher’s darker books may need to temper their expectations here. There were a few chills here and there, but much less than in her other works. I also felt like the ultimate conflict was resolved a bit too quickly and neatly to be entirely satisfying.

Beyond that, while I think this is one of the better versions of a cozy, “day in the life” sort of book, I did struggle a bit to really invest myself in this story. Much of the page count is taken up by interactions between characters as Selena builds her found family and small, quiet moments in the desert and her home. Kingfisher is a talented author, so the character work was all high quality, but I simply enjoy more plot in my books than this sort of cozy work will often have.

Overall, this was a sweet book that explored themes of emotional abuse, religion, and personal agency. There were a few thrills here and there, but it definitely fell further on the cozy side of the spectrum. Fans of T. Kingfisher should definitely check this out, especially those who enjoy her less horrific books!

Rating 8: A lovely found family story that perfectly captures the wild strangeness of the desert, but a bit light on the plot for my particular taste.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Snake-Eater” can be found on these Goodreads lists: [ATY 2026] Bird on Cover and All the New Horror Books Arriving in December 2025.

Kate’s Review: “The Dead Husband Cookbook”

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Book: “The Dead Husband Cookbook” by Danielle Valentine

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, August 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: She has the recipe for the perfect murder…

Maria Capello is a celebrity chef like no other. A household name, an inspiration, an icon. Her dozens of cookbooks and weekly television show, broadcast from her beautiful Italian-style kitchen, not to mention her line of bestselling supermarket sauces. And of course there’s her history. Once just the timid wife of famous chef Damien Capello, she stepped into the spotlight after Damien’s mysterious disappearance twenty years before. An event she’s never spoken about publicly until now, when it is announced that she is looking for a publisher for her memoirs.

Why is Maria willing to finally break her silence? Why does she turn down seven-figure offers from large publishing houses and sign up with a small press? And why does she do so on the condition that it is edited by Thea Woods? Thea is a lifelong fan but has never met Maria and can’t figure it out, plus she had been planning to hand in her notice that very day. But when she is invited to Maria’s remote farm to work on the manuscript, she can’t resist. After all, she may finally learn whether the rumours are that Maria killed Damien for his recipes and the legendary ‘secret ingredient’…

Review: I was kicking myself when I realized that I completely missed an opportunity to read “The Dead Husband Cookbook” by Danielle Valentine in time for the publication date. In part due to the fact that I really enjoyed Valentine’s previous book “Delicate Condition”. But also due to the fact that the premise of a celebrity chef being rumored to have murdered her husband, and potentially spilling all of the T regarding it to a desperate and ambitious editor. Oh, and the implied cannibalism. Because who doesn’t love a weird and twisted cannibal story? But I did eventually get it from the library, and when I started it I had a hard time putting it down, even in the whirlwind of the holiday season! Because “The Dead Husband Cookbook” is compulsive and incredibly addictive, and maybe I’m a weirdo for saying it, but also made me a little hungry…

Is this spoilery? Maybe. Maybe not. I’ll never tell. (source)

The premise is pretty straightforward. Thea Woods is a talented editor, but has found herself on thin ice at her publishing house due to the part she played in a pretty huge scandal that rocked the publishing world. She’s convinced she’s gong to be fired, but is shocked when she is instead requested to be the editor for the memoir of celebrity chef and powerhouse Maria Capello, who rocketed to stardom after her chef husband went missing and she followed in and improved upon his footsteps (and has been hounded by rumors and conspiracies of the role she played in the whole debacle). Thea jumps at the chance, desperate to close this deal in spite of the fact she has to go to Maria’s estate by herself and is soon drawn into weird shenanigans. The mystery at hand (did Maria murder her husband? Why did she insist upon Thea as her editor? Just what is happening at the estate?) is told through Thea’s perspective, as well as chapters from Maria’s memoir as she hands them to Thea bit by bit, and I thought that the structure was tense and intriguing, with both Thea AND Maria acting as unreliable narrators with secrets to hide and a lot to lose. The pacing is fast, there are some genuinely interesting and surprising twists, and I found myself shocked more often than not as I read through. I also really like that I found myself going back and forth in my head about whether or not Maria did, in fact, murder her husband, and I like having to really question the foundation and bare bones of a mystery like this.

But I also really liked the way that Valentine tackles themes of motherhood, the expectations of being a wife, and the way that married women and mothers have to constantly deal with frustrating expectations when it comes to how they can ‘have it all’. Whether it’s Thea who loves her child but feels like her husband doesn’t really understand the true challenges of being a mother and having a full time job, or Maria who had her own aspirations and dreams and ambitions but had to set them aside for her less talented (and caddish) husband, you find sympathy for two women who are both making terrible decisions and, in Maria’s case, possibly committing horrific acts. Valentine touched on similar issues in “Delicate Condition”, and while this one didn’t have the same level of oomph that that one had, it still had my blood boiling at times, whether it was because Thea’s husband was crumbling under the pressure of parenthood after one solitary night, or because Maria’s husband was complaining that she isn’t really fun anymore now that she’s a wife and mother while he’s running a business that she dreamed of. Feminine rage abound, and Valentine captures it quite well once again.

Oh, and yes, there are some really tasty sounding recipes in this book. I was absolutely tickled that Valentine threw in a lot of Italian dishes with some snappy/sarcastic names, and while I’m not a talented enough cook to know if they sounded like they were going to be amazing, I was, nonetheless, very interested in giving at least a few of them a whirl. The only Italian dish that I really know how to do is lasanga, but now I have some ideas to potentially try my hand at…

“The Dead Husband Cookbook” is another fun and suspenseful mystery from Danielle Valentine! I’m sorry I missed it on the first go around, and I will definitely be more in tune with what Valentine comes out with in the future!

Rating 8: A twisty mystery, a lot of righteous indignation about marriage and relationships, and some pretty fun recipes combine to make another enjoyable thriller from Danielle Valentine!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Dead Husband’s Cookbook” is included on the Goodreads list “Food-Related Fiction”.

Serena’s Review: “The Things Gods Break”

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Book: “The Things Gods Break” by Abigail Owen

Publishing Info: Entangled: Red Tower Books, October 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: from the library!

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

Book Description: She has won the games of the gods, can she stand against the titans? Lyra may have survived the Crucible, but now she faces an even more dangerous test – a deadly race against time begins in Tartarus.

The games continue in the thrilling and highly anticipated follow-up to the bestselling romantasy The Games Gods Play. Welcome to Tartarus!

Previously Reviewed: “The Games Gods Play”

Review: Per my usual approach to Decembers, a notoriously light month for publishing, I’m back to checking out books that came out a few months ago that I was too busy at the time to check out! I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed “The Games Gods Play;” from the book description, it sounded like yet another tired deadly-competition romantasy novel. But instead I found an exciting, witty adventure with an actually developed romance at its heart. Yes, I had a few nitpicks with some of the magic elements, but overall, it was just a fun time all around. It did, however, end on a massive cliffhanger!

This one picks up right where the first book left off, which means readers are thrown right back into the action! I was actually a bit concerned with how this all would go. On one hand, it’s been an excellent fantasy adventure so far. But on the other, the central romance between Lyra and Hades has served as the emotional backbone of the series. So, now, with them separated, how do you maintain that relationship without immediately undercutting or making light of the dangerous and impossible-seeming circumstances that these characters have been thrown into? Well, I don’t want to get into too many details about how it all works, but I will say, I was incredibly impressed with how Owens managed this tricky threading-of-the-needle.

To my primary concern, the story in no way walks back on the true dangers of Lyra’s situation, now being stuck down in the deep depths of Tartarus, surrounded by the Titans, mad gods that the Olympians locked away thousands of years ago. But, of course, nothing is as it seems! And now, somehow this author has managed to write not only one “trials-based” fantasy novel that didn’t feel derivative or overly familiar, but has now written a sequel that heavily features another competition at its heart! Like the first book, the actual trials in these tests were incredibly creative, and Lyra didn’t simply waltz through them with ease. It’s only through grit, determination, and a growing reliance on the bonds she has with those around her that she continues forward.

What’s more, the book wisely doesn’t spend the entire story focused on these trials. Instead, the majority of the book is dedicated to fleshing out the history of the Titans and the Olympians. There were so many incredible twists and turns here, and I was impressed by how successfully the author was able to flip my emotions on a dime for many of the characters in question. By the end, there were definite tears, and not for the characters I would have expected!

And, of course, Lyra and Hades remained central to the story. Again, I can’t go into exactly how this was accomplished, but I was so impressed by the way this love story was expanded upon. Indeed, Owens actually managed to retroactively deal with and address some of the questions and problems I had with their love story in the first book! A truly impressive feat! Even without trying to keep up the intensity between two characters who are separated for almost the entire book, second books are notoriously hard for authors of romance trilogies.

All too often, the move is to introduce ridiculous and contrived angst and drama in an attempt to increase “tension” or something. For me, this usually backfires spectacularly, making me dislike one or both characters and struggle to continue. It’s all the more frustrating because it’s not like people fall in love and then all other challenges in their relationship and world magically disappear! There is plenty to explore in a new relationship without introducing ridiculousness everywhere. All that to say, hurrah for Abigail Owens for understanding this and giving readers an excellent second book in a romantasy trilogy that avoids the sillier side of angst.

Rating 9: Not only did I like this one, but it even made me like the first book more!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Things Gods Break” can be found on this Goodreads list: All the New Romantasy Books Arriving in October 2025.

Kate’s Review: “Midnight Somewhere”

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Book: “Midnight Somewhere: A Short Story Collection

Publishing Info: Blackstone Publishing, December 2025

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: From Bram Stoker Award–nominated author Johnny Compton, Midnight Somewhere is a frightening collection of thought-provoking stories perfect for fans of Stephen King’s Night Shift , Tananarive Due’s The Wishing Pool , and the work of Junji Ito.

A man gets into a car that can take him anywhere he can imagine—including the past, into the worst mistake of his life, a memory he does not want to relive, cannot escape, and is even more afraid to alter …

A seemingly harmless, forgettable film about “alien hand syndrome” inspires a wave of self-harm among viewers—and even stranger things among those who become obsessed with it …

A woman tries to bring her dead lover to life through a macabre ritual that requires attacking his corpse. Is it because she longs to be with him again … or because the two of them have unfinished business?

The assorted characters in this thrilling collection encounter horrors that range from mysterious to murderous, discovering that darkness can find anyone, anywhere, at any hour of the day. After all, it’s always Midnight Somewhere …

Review: Thank you to Blackstone Publishing for sending me an eARC of this book!

I may just have to refer to 2025 as the Year I Read ALL The Short Story Collections”, because it was a LOT this year. Even though I had great luck with all of the anthologies and collections I read this year, I was always kind of waiting for the bubble to pop, wondering if THIS one would be the one that reinforced my general wariness of the format. When Blackstone Publishing reached out with Johnny Compton’s new horror collection “Midnight Somewhere”, I was interested, but in the back of my mind I was wondering if this was when the other shoe was going to drop. After all, I read his book “The Spite House” and it didn’t really click with me. But I decided to go for it, and am I ever glad I did! Because “Midnight Somewhere” was a great short stories collection!

As I usually do for short stories collections, I will review my three favorite stories, then I will review the collection as a whole.

“The Death Grip Challenge”: This was one of the first stories in the collection and it was the one that made me really settle in with excitement about what I was reading. A girl has been noticing that her father has been starting to act strangely after he started getting really into a viral video trend involving a B-horror film with a possessed hand. This one has a slow burn build up where you just know that something is creeping up on the characters (AND the reader), and I was so tense by the time we got to the climax I was totally wrung out. It’s weird and unexplained and also taps into very real anxieties about viral trends and everyone needing to get in on the action, no matter how harmful.

“Monster Bites”: As someone who loves her three cats to death (as well as all cats I’ve owned throughout my life), I was obviously going to have a special place in my heart for the scary story with the pet. Elisa hasn’t really connected with her girlfriend Grace’s dog Dandy after moving in, keeping her at arm’s length except for their evening walks. But when Elisa and Dandy run afoul something one evening, their true colors come out. This one is one of the less scary tales just because of how damn wholesome it is, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have scary bits! Some of the descriptions of the threat really, really set me on edge, and one is ALWAYS nervous when animals as involved in a horror story. But not to fret: no trigger warnings for animal harm in this one, and that’s all I will say.

“He Used to Scare Me By Accident”: This was probably my favorite story in the collection, and man does it kind of just kick you in the gut with creepiness and a quiet sadness to boot. Olivia and Stephen are a happy couple, though Olivia’s jumpiness manages to lead to Stephen scaring her by accident more often than not. Still, their marriage is solid and he is more than happy to try and warn her whenever he is coming just in case. Except the one time he doesn’t…. I can’t talk about this one TOO much without spoiling it, but I will say that I found myself deeply saddened by a few of the turns it took, if only because so much of what this story is about is regret, loss, and the things that we have done that continue to haunt us. I actually said ‘wow’ when I turned the last page.

And really, this is a very strong collection as a whole! Compton has a lot of different tones and ideas here, some of them deeply scary, others a little sweet, and even others incredibly witty and sometimes laugh out loud funny. And some of them are just so out there in the best ways (a rollercoaster coming to life and running off into the wilderness, what on EARTH?!). I don’t think that any were true clunkers, and the ones that didn’t hit as much were more about personal preference than anything the stories themselves did. It’s been a huge year of short story collections in my reading, and it’s collections like this that made me really pleased to give the format so many chances for the past year.

“Midnight Somewhere” is a lot of fun! I’m so glad that I decided to check it out, and horror fans really should too. Guess I have to go back and read Compton’s “Devils Kill Devils”!

Rating 8: A varied and incredibly entertaining collection of short horror stories with lots of different tones, vibes, and scares.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Midnight Somewhere” isn’t included on many Goodreads lists as of now, but it would absolutely fit in on “Horror: Short Stories”.

Serena’s Review: “Tailored Realities”

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Book: “Tailored Realities” by Brandon Sanderson

Publishing Info: Tor Books, December 2025

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

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

Book Description: Spanning the genres of fantasy and science fiction, this collection features stories from beyond the bounds of Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere universe. Along with the never-before-seen novella “Moment Zero,” Tailored Realities will include “Snapshot,” “Perfect State,” “Defending Elysium” (a novella set within the world of Skyward), and five other stories that were originally published individually elsewhere-never before collected into one volume, and many never before available in print.

Review: I’ve known that Brandon Sanderson has published a number of short stories and novellas over his career (because writing a bunch of hundreds-of-pages-long novels simply isn’t enough!), but I haven’t managed to check many of them out myself. That being the case, while this book also includes a new novella, all the stories here were new to me!

While I tend to prefer fantasy over science fiction, and this holds true for my taste in Sanderson’s collections of work as well, this book was a great reminder of how the genre can sing in the hands of a talented author! I’m not going to cover them all here, but I will say there is a good mix on offer, with some stories more strongly focused on action while others are clearly examples of Sanderson testing the boundaries of genre writing. I’m not sure all of these experiments were clearly successful, but I loved the included notes that gave readers further insight into the ideas behind each story and how they came to be. These postscripts on their own made the book well worth reading for any Sanderson fan out there!

I’m sure many reviewers will also note this fact, but it’s pretty amusing that Sanderson, an author known for producing brick-like tomes, has included a “novella” in this story that is close to 200 pages long, the same length as many other authors’ typical novel. However, as I don’t often love short stories, this fact worked out perfectly for me, as I got to read a short story collection while also sinking into what felt like a fully realized novel all on its own as well.

Beyond this lengthy one, “Moment Zero,” there were a few others I enjoyed as well. The first story in the collection, “Snapshot,” was one of my favorites. The story felt very Inception-like, with two detectives traveling back through a crime scene photo to investigate a serial killer. The entire concept was interesting, and I would absolutely gobble up a full-length novel of this story. I also really enjoyed “Defending Elysium,” even though I haven’t read the Skyward books that it is connected to. That said, I’m always going to enjoy a great “first contact” story, and this one definitely lived up to my expectations for that sort of tale.

I don’t think any of the stories here were bad, though there were a few that were a bit weaker, in my opinion. For example, “Probability Approaching Zero” is a flash fiction story, meaning it was incredibly short. Too short for me to really get much out of it, honestly. The story “I Hate Dragons” was one of those odd experiences where I really appreciated the creativity of the story (a character who can hear spelling and grammar), but the actual execution left something to be desired.

In the end, I enjoyed the majority of the stories here, and even the ones that didn’t perfectly land were still very interesting, especially when adding in the postscript explanations for how the story was conceptualized. I do think that this is the sort of collection that will best be appreciated by current Sanderson fans and perhaps a bit less approachable by readers who have never read any of his books before. But you also don’t need to be fully up to date with his entire massive catalog to appreciate it either!

Rating 8: Everything that I’ve come to expect from Brandon Sanderson: adventurous, creative, and never lacking in heart!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Tailored Realities” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Short Story Collections – Single Author.

Book Club Review: “The Bletchley Riddle”

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Book: “The Bletchley Riddle” by Ruta Sepetys & Steve Sheinkin

Publishing Info: Viking Books for Young Readers, October 2024

Where Did We Get This Book: The Library!

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

Book Description: Remember, you are bound by the Official Secrets Act…

Summer, 1940. Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis and his quirky younger sister Lizzie share a love of riddles and puzzles. And now they’re living inside of one. The quarrelsome siblings find themselves amidst one of the greatest secrets of World War II—Britain’s eccentric codebreaking factory at Bletchley Park. As Jakob joins Bletchley’s top minds to crack the Nazi’s Enigma cipher, fourteen-year-old Lizzie embarks on a mission to solve the mysterious disappearance of their mother.

The Battle of Britain rages and Hitler’s invasion creeps closer. And at the same time, baffling messages and codes arrive on their doorstep while a menacing inspector lurks outside the gates of the Bletchley mansion. Are the messages truly for them, or are they a trap? Could the riddles of Enigma and their mother’s disappearance be somehow connected? Jakob and Lizzie must find a way to work together as they race to decipher clues which unravel a shocking puzzle that presents the ultimate challenge: How long must a secret be kept?

Serena’s Thoughts

Other than the fact that this is a middle grade novel (I don’t tend to love reading this genre as an adult, which honestly makes me a bit sad!), this book was right up my alley! I enjoy both historical fiction as well as mysteries, and both are done so well in this story. I was also a big fan of the code-breaking and puzzle aspects. I enjoyed trying to put things together myself, but also was happy to simply follow along with the characters as they pieced it all together and then explained it to me later.

I have a long record on this blog of complaining about poorly executed alternating POVs, but this was a good example of how to do this right. One of my biggest complaints is that authors often have a hard time writing multiple characters in ways that make them feel distinct. This story was well suited for this, however, focusing on a pair of siblings, an older teenage brother and his younger middle grade sister. Between the age and gender differences, they both felt very distinct. It was also great following their different experiences with Bletchley Park and the roles they took on there.

I also thought many of the side characters were very good, and I appreciated the way the authors managed to weave in real-world historical figures throughout the text. It would have been nearly impossible to not include these figures, but there’s always the danger, when writing fiction, that any real-life characters won’t blend well with their fictional counterparts. Not the case here! I think both authors well understood the truth in the saying “a little goes a long way” in this area.

Overall, this was a great middle grade read! Not being a middle grade reader myself, I may not have enjoyed it as much as the target audience, but this would be an easy book to recommend to large swaths of younger readers!

Kate’s Thoughts

I too am not much of a middle grade reader unless the topic is VERY interesting to me, but I have loved basically every book I’ve read by Ruth Sepetys so I had pretty high hopes for this one. Middle grade or not. And I also find books about World War II’s ally home fronts interesting in general, especially for places like Britain that were dealing with the constant fear of invasion. And finally, I had some vague knowledge about Bletchley Park thanks to stories about Alan Turing, as well as the miniseries “The Bletchley Circle”. All of that combined to make this a potentially good match for me, and overall it was.

Now I’m not super good at codes and puzzles, but I really enjoyed the way that the authors not only explained the importance of Bletchley Park and the goals that it had, it also gives really accessible examples of codes and ciphers to contextualize what kind of work they were doing (and how daunting the Enigma Machine was even for the most skilled of code breakers). Similarly to how she writes historical fiction books for teens, Supetys really has a skill for bringing out the most interesting and sometimes complex topics and parsing out that information for her audience, this one being middle grade. I also liked how she not only touched on the British code breakers through Jakob’s work (and the important work of messengers like Lizzie, who could be young teens!), but also the code work that more in the thick of it countries were doing, like Poland.

I also generally enjoyed the sibling relationship between Jakob and Lizzie, who butt heads sometimes but always have each other’s backs even in the most stressful of times. We have not only the stress of being at Bletchley, the stress of being in a place that could be bombed at any time, AND the question of where their espionage adjacent mother is, who disappeared in Poland and who Lizzie is convinced in still alive (while British intelligence is convinced she is a traitor). Watching them not only try to figure out how they can help in any way they can at Bletchley but ALSO try and hold on without knowing where their mother is was at times emotional, and both Sepetys and Sheinkin bring their talents together to create an informative and gripping family story.

I found “The Bletchley Riddle” to be a well done World War II read that history buffs of ANY age may like!

Serena’s Rating 8: A great balance of historical facts and exciting adventure, perfect for any middle grade or young adult readers who are interested in learning more about the lesser-known parts of WWII.

Kate’s Rating 8: An accessible and entertaining historical fiction for kids about code breaking, World War II, and siblings fighting against Nazis and surviving a war in more ways than one.

Book Club Questions

  1. How familiar were you with the history of Bletchley Park before reading this book?
  2. Did the setting of World War II London ring true for you?
  3. We follow the Novis siblings, Lizzie and Jacob, with their voices alternating between chapters. Did you find these two characters voices different enough as you read the book? Did you like one perspective more than another?
  4. What did you think about the friendships in this book?
  5. How did you like the inclusion of real life figures like Alan Turing? Did it feel like it fit, or did it feel distracting?
  6. What were your thoughts on the mystery Willa Novis and her disappearance? What about the code mysteries?

Reader’s Advisory

“The Bletchley Riddle” is included on the Goodreads lists “World War Two England”, and “Books Set in Bletchley Park”.

Next Book Club Pick: “The Hacienda” by Isabel Cañas

Serena’s Review: “A Curious Kind of Magic”

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

Book: “A Curious Kind of Magic” by Mara Rutherford

Publishing Info: Wednesday Books, October 2025

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

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

Book Description: Everyone in Ardmuir knows that Willow Stokes is a charlatan, including Willow herself. Her father’s shoppe hasn’t sold anything magical in decades, and it’s only hanging on by the skin of the fake dragon’s teeth Willow sells as charms, along with “enchanted” ostrich eggs, taxidermied chimeras, and talismans made of fools’ gold.

Until outlander Brianna Hargrave appears and turns Willow’s fakes into exactly what they’re purported to be. But try as Willow might to enlist Bri’s help, she wants nothing to do with Willow and her curiosities.

Because Brianna is harboring a secret of her own: everything she touches turns to magic, and the consequences have chased her all the way to Ardmuir. All she wants to do is find a particular missing grimoire, which contains a spell that can finally put an end to her curse.

Desperate to keep her father’s shoppe, Willow proposes a bargain that could save them both. Together with the frustratingly handsome printer’s assistant, the girls will uncover a plot that goes far deeper than either could have imagined. But when Willow is forced to participate in an ambitious collector’s quest for the rarest magical object in the world-a quest that risks almost-certain death-she learns that not all treasure is for sale, and that true magic is closer than she ever could have imagined.

Review: This is one of those books where I closed the page and my only thought was, “Well, what’s next?” Everything about this one was almost aggressively just okay. Nothing was bad enough that I wanted to get out my laptop right away and start a rant. But nothing was good enough either that I wanted to think much more about the entire experience.

Part of this comes down to the fact that nothing really stands out in this book. It’s set in some nondescript “historical” time period and setting. The magical elements are just your typical fairytale sort of thing where certain people have access to magic and others don’t. And the characters are all fairly familiar archetypes, from the prickly leading lady to the cinnamon roll romantic interest.

None of this is particularly helped by the slow pacing of the story. I’ve struggled with this aspect of Mara Rutherford’s writing in the past, and it was the same situation here. These YA books aren’t particularly long, but given the actual plot and content of the book, like her others, this one felt as if it could be 50 pages shorter at least. Some of this can be explained away by the cozy subgenre, a particular subset of genres that often rely on slower pacing and day-in-the-life motifs. But even within this category, I think this one felt particularly uneven in its pacing and plotting. However, cozy fantasy is often a struggle for me, so bigger fans of the genre may be less bothered by this aspect of the book.

I also struggled with the characters. The main character is written to be prickly and standoffish, but more often than not, this translated into me simply disliking her much of the time. Much of the spare 50–75 pages worth of content in this book is taken up by Willow’s poor decision-making and insistence on keeping everything and everyone at arm’s length. Bri, perhaps, was a bit better, but again, I never felt like I had enough to really grasp onto her as a unique and interesting character. And Finlay, for his part, was a sweet character, but too often this sweetness took a turn towards bland and left me feeling distinctly underwhelmed.

Perhaps “underwhelmed” is the best description for my feelings for this book. I’ve enjoyed Mara Rutherford’s books in the past, but I think that some of her particular writing foibles (slower and sometimes uneven pacing) were not benefitted by the cozy subgenre. Her previous books had darker themes and elements which I think elevated some of the weaker portions (characterization and pacing). Whereas here, with less plot to speak of, these flaws rose more to the forefront. However, I will say that this may appeal more to general fans of YA cozy fantasy, so if you’re a fan of that subgenre or a big Rutherford fan, this one may still be worth checking out!

Rating 7: Just okay. There was nothing bad about this read, but nothing will really stick with me either, unfortunately.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Curious Kind of Magic” can be found on these Goodreads lists: YA Cozy Fantasy and Cozy and Cold Weather Reads (YA and Children’s).

Kate’s Review: “The Bone Thief”

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Book: “The Bone Thief” by Vanessa Lillie

Publishing Info: Berkley, October 2025

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

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

Book Description: When a Native teenager vanishes from her small town—a place with dark ties to an elite historical society—archaeologist Syd Walker is called to investigate…from bestselling author Vanessa Lillie.

In the hours before dawn at a local summer camp, Bureau of Indian Affairs archaeologist Syd Walker receives an alarming call: newly discovered skeletal remains have been stolen. Not only have bones gone missing, but a Native teen girl has disappeared near the camp, and law enforcement dismisses her family’s fears.

As Syd investigates both crimes, she’s drawn into a world of privileged campers and their wealthy parents—most of them members of the Founders Society, an exclusive club whose members trace their lineage to the first colonists and claim ancestral rights to the land, despite fierce objections from the local tribal community. And it’s not the first time something—or someone—has gone missing from the camp.

The deeper Syd digs, the more she realizes these aren’t isolated incidents. A pattern of disappearances stretches back generations, all leading to the Founders Society’s doorstep. But exposing the truth means confronting not just the town’s most powerful families, but also a legacy of violence that refuses to stay buried.

From the national bestselling author of Blood Sisters (a Washington Post Best Mystery of the Year and Target Book Club pick) comes a new Syd Walker novel that proves the sins of the past are destined to repeat until the truth is finally unearthed.

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

I really enjoyed Vanessa Lillie’s first Syd Walker Mystery “Blood Sisters” when I read it awhile back, having stumbled upon it and taking a chance on it only to be really happy with it. Because of this it’s definitely not shocking that when I saw that Lillie had a new Syd Walker mystery coming out, “The Bone Thief”, I had to request it post haste. I am always hoping to find a new mystery series to follow, and sometimes one good read can be a fluke. I hoped it wasn’t the case for Lillie’s Syd, and boy was I happy to see that Syd is still going strong and bringing compelling and searingly relevant mysteries!

We have two mysteries at work here. The first is the case of some remains of an Indigenous woman and her baby that Syd is involved with as a BIA archaeologist, and how the local historical group The Founders Society wants to have them for clout while the local tribes want to bring them back to the community… only for the remains to disappear. Along with that, a Native teenager named Naomi has gone missing, harkening back to Syd’s previous mystery where she went searching for her missing sister, and also found her childhood friend Luna and Luna’s daughter Gracie on her search (Luna and Gracie have since moved in with Syd and her very pregnant wife Mal, which is causing some friction). I enjoyed both of the mysteries, as I felt that Lillie did a good job of keeping the focus even upon both while also slowly intertwining them, with connections between missing teen Naomi and the Founder’s Society, as well as other mysteries connected to the group over the years. Syd is still a very enjoyable detective, trying to remain true and honest to her own Indigenous heritage while also working for the BIA in a way that she feels can be positive. I felt like there were solid reveals, well done misdirections, and a well placed smattering of clues that all came together for some satisfying conclusions.

But, like so many other books that have such themes, it was the social commentary about the way that Indigenous people in this country are being erased, ignored, oppressed, and victimized, whether it’s during this time period in a pre-Obama United States, or in the many years since the invasion of this country by European colonizers. In this book Syd has found herself not only investigating another missing Indigenous woman case, she is also dealing with the theft and exploitation of Indigenous remains, when the skeletons of an Indigenous woman and her baby are found and the local historical organization The Founders Society wants claim to the bones. Syd has to walk a tenuous line as a BIA archaeologist, as she believes in the education of the masses to the history of Indigenous peoples and how history should, indeed, be accessible to anyone… But she also is fully aware that a predominantly white historical society mainly made up of descendants of colonizers keeping not only artifacts but also remains of Indigenous people is deeply, DEEPLY problematic and unethical. Lillie raises a lot of good questions about not only the way that living Indigenous people are still being wronged in the modern world, but how the long dead continue to be victimized through their remains being disrespected and withheld from tribes in the name of white history. It’s important to keep talking about it, and I appreciated the way that Lillie blended it all together along with the mystery.

“The Bone Thief” is another enjoyable Syd Walker mystery from Vanessa Lillie! I really hope this series continues, it really clicks with me.

Rating 8: Another solid mystery with all too relevant social commentary about the Indigenous experience, “The Bone Thief” is a gripping thriller with a very likable protagonist.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Bone Thief” is included on the Goodreads list “Indigenous Books 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “The Creeping”

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Book: “The Creeping” by Alexandra Sirowy

Publishing Info: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, August 2015

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC of the re-release from the publicist

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

Book Description: Eleven years ago, Stella and Jeanie disappeared. Only Stella came back.

Now all she wants is a summer full of cove days, friends, and her gorgeous crush – until a fresh corpse leads Stella down a path of ancient evil and secrets.

Stella believes remembering what happened to Jeanie will save her. It won’t.

She used to know better than to believe in what slinks through the shadows. Not anymore.

Review: Thank you to Wunderkind PR for sending me an ARC of this novel!

So I ran into an interesting situation when I started reading “The Creeping” by Alexandra Sirowy. As started reading, I started feeling like it was a bit familiar. Something in my mind was niggling at me. Savage, Minnesota? A girl who experienced something traumatizing and has no memory of that day? A mean best friend and a longing boy who used to be a friend?

Something feels familiar… (source)

I hadn’t gone to my Goodreads to update my reading status at this point, and so I went to my account and looked up “The Creeping”…. and realized that I read it when it originally came out ten years ago!! I had known it was a re-release, but clearly ten years meant that the title hadn’t rang any bells at first. I didn’t go back and read my thoughts as I wanted to go in without any influence on my thoughts. And I enjoyed it again, and found it to be fascinating to see how my views shifted in ten years.

As a small town with secrets and folklore perhaps treading towards a supernatural horror, “The Creeping” checks off a lot of boxes that I generally enjoy in the tropes that come with such tales. Savage, Minnesota (not too far from where we live, albeit a fictional version of this town!) has been haunted by the disappearance of a little girl named Jeanie, who disappeared in the woods with her best friend Stella when she was six and never came back, though Stella did, with no memory of what happened. Stella has tried to move on, leaning hard into her friend Zoey and becoming popular and generally revered in her school… Until a body of a little girl who looks a LOT like Jeanie is found in the woods around the anniversary, and stirs up memories and fears in Stella. I love a teenager trying to find out the dark secrets of her hometown, and in “The Creeping” it’s a bit unclear as to whether this is a human monster, or something a bit more supernatural. I found the clues to be well placed, the tension to be pretty well paced, and the folk lore and history of the town to be compelling and mysterious. There are also touches upon the way that a community can get thrown into a frenzy when unexplainable things happen, so desperate for answers they find targets to focus on. These feelings didn’t really change too much from my initial read to this one.

But this time around I had some shifting feelings about the teenage relationships in a way that kind of surprised me! When I initially read this ten years ago my review was especially scathing towards Zoey, Stella’s opinionated and sometimes manipulative best friend who tries to push Stella to be as carefree and popular as she strives to be. And reading it now ten years later was an interesting comparison, as I still found Zoey to be a pretty mean girl, but I was more willing to give her a little bite of grace this time around. I appreciated the way that Sirowy depicts a complicated friendship between two friends who genuinely adore each other, but one is incredibly insecure in herself and lashes out instead of unpacking that insecurity (and hey, as someone who was once a teenage girl I found this VERY realistic). It was also a well done examination of how trauma can still linger and haunt a person, and how people around them can say that they are supportive and understanding, but then get burned out on it and can say and do some cruel things out of not really getting the weight of it all. Heck, I enjoyed all of the teenage relationships at the forefront of this book, whether it’s the messy one between Stella and Zoey, or the renewed and intimate dynamic between Stella and Sam, the friend she left behind at Zoey’s behest. I really loved seeing Stella and Sam come back together and found their romance not overpowering to the narrative, while also being very sweet and tender.

It was a enjoyable time revisiting “The Creeping”! I liked seeing how my thoughts shifted while still staying pretty aligned, and in two weeks I will be following up with another of Sirowy’s re-releases, “The Tellilng”!

Rating 8: A surprise re-read that I enjoyed in another way ten years after my first read, “The Creeping” is small town secrets, folklore thrills, and complicated teenage relationships all rolled into a quick and interesting thriller.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Creeping” is included on the Goodreads lists “YA Books Set in Minnesota”, and “YA Murder Mysteries”.

Kate’s Review: “The Butcher and the Liar”

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Book: “The Butcher and the Liar” by S.L. Woeppel

Publishing Info: Books Fluent, September 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a finished copy from the publicist

Where You Can Get This Book: Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Daisy Bellon thinks she may have buried her skeletons forever. At thirty-five, she runs a butcher shop in a forgotten corner of Chicago, keeping her past locked away. But when an anonymous letter arrives, she’s thrust back to the day her life split in two.

At nine years old, Daisy meets Caleb Garcia, a boy who makes her believe in the possibility of friendship and happiness. But that same night, she stumbles upon her father dismembering a woman in their basement and becomes his unwilling apprentice, sworn to keep his monstrous secrets. When the victim’s ghost appears in Daisy’s room, she’s bound to a haunting legacy. To endure, Daisy weaves a web of lies, clinging to the light of Caleb’s friendship while slipping deeper into the darkness of her father’s shadow.

More than two decades later, following the arrival of the mysterious letter, someone close to Daisy is brutally murdered in an all-too-familiar fashion. Forced to confront the truth about her family and herself, Daisy must decide whether to let the darkness consume her—or to fight for love and redemption, even if it means revealing everything she’s tried to bury.

A haunting psychological thriller perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, The Butcher and the Liar has mystery lovers and literary fiction readers on the edge of their seats.

Review: Thank you to Books Forward for sending me a copy of this novel!

I know that she is a darling of the modern thriller genre these days (and I do feel like it’s a well earned reputation), I have to admit that I have had mixed feelings about Gillian Flynn’s books. Loved “Dark Places”. Hated “Gone Girl”. Was middle of the road on “Sharp Objects”. I do kind of wish she’d come back and write another book like so many others do, but I also respect her for doing her own thing. Ultimately, if a book is compared to Gillian Flynn I’m a bit hesitant, both because I have mixed feelings about her works, but also because her works are so influential and hard to replicate. I wanted to check out “The Butcher and the Liar” by S.L. Woeppel when it ended up in our inbox because the premise sounded interesting (a woman made into an accomplice to her serial killer father’s crimes when she was a child trying to piece her life back together, oh my GOSH yes), but the Gillian Flynn angle made me say ‘okay sure, whatever you say’ because we’ve heard it so much. But as I was reading it I realized that it’s actually not a bad comparison.

I enjoyed the way that Woeppel combines a few different genres here to create something gritty yet dreamy, with thriller, historical fiction, family saga, and coming of age mixing up with a dash of the supernatural. We follow Daisy Bellon, the daughter of a notorious serial killer who murdered women over many years, and made Daisy an unwilling accomplice after she found him trying to dispose of a body of one of his victims. As a child she has only one friend, the boy next door named Caleb, whose friendship she always holds at arm’s length even as she grows to adore him… Until a ghost named Marina, who she believes is a victim of her father, latches on, and they too form a bond. In the present Daisy is an anonymous butcher in Chicago, who only opens up to her dear friend Miles. But when a neighbor is murdered in a similar fashion to her now imprisoned father’s M.O. she starts to wonder if she can ever really escape her past. It’s a lot of different vibes, but Woeppel is pretty good and finding the highlights of all the genres at their best to create a mystery, a ghost story, and a coming of age tale that mixes well and never feels too overstuffed. Whenever I would find myself questioning if it was too much going on, there would be things that made it clear that no, Woeppel knows what she’s doing with the different genres and it almost always came together in a satisfying manner.

I also really liked the two timeline narratives, flipping between Daisy in 2015 as she is dealing with potentially coming into the spotlight again with an art installation a new love interest is throwing and the murder of her neighbor, and the late 1980s into the early to mid 1990s as her father is murdering women and making her a witness. Daisy is such a complicated and damaged person who is both figuratively AND literally haunted (as the ghost of Marina is always by her side), and I found the way that she pushes others away and turns inwards upon herself in the past timeline to be very realistic and hard to read. And I really liked that she never falls into an all too common trope of ‘messy woman main character is bogged down by her messiness’, as I found Daisy to be very complicated but rarely frustrating in her journey. She’s traumatized, and there is lots of grace and nuance given to her. As we find out the connecting threads between the past and the present and what her motivation to be better has been, it comes together in the most satisfying way that left me both filled with heartache for her as well as satisfaction for how her story turn out, perhaps still a little messy, but not without hope for those who have done things that they regret and perhaps can’t fully understand. It’s such a bittersweet coming of age tale that went in ways I didn’t expect and it was really enjoyable.

“The Butcher and the Liar” should be on peoples radars if they like thrillers, coming of age tales, and complicated main characters. Maybe bring tissues too.

Rating 8: A haunting coming of age novel about a girl grappling with her dark family history and the part she played, “The Butcher and the Liar” is an emotional story about trauma and redemption.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Butcher and the Liar” isn’t on any relevant Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Best Coming of Age Thriller”.