Every book in this group is by K.J. Charles. Three of the four are the same series or an off-shoot, the other is the first book in a new series.

All four are historical M/M romances and all four have boinking.

Spectred Isle (2017)(8/10)

This is the first book in a (hopefully) new series, set after The Great War.

The war upended many things, and for Randolph Glyde, it destroyed his life, as he is the last of his line–almost all other members of his family having been killed during the war. Which makes him the sole heir to the magical traditions, and the protection of many places of power.

Saul Lazenby was disgraced during the war (and lucky he wasn’t shot for being a traitor) so he has been utterly unable to find work as an archeologist, and has ended up working with a man looking for historical traces of the supernatural.

Neither man trusts the other, but they keep being drawn to places and events and don’t understand why.

I really adore her world building–the magic use is marvelous, but her characters are even better. I’ve read a LOT of her books this year, and every character is distinct and engaging.

The Magpie Lord (2013)(8/10), Flight of Magpies (2014)(8/10)

Lucien Vaudrey has spent the last 20 years in exile, returning to England only after unexpectedly becoming the heir. His plan is to get things settle and get out of England.

Stephen Day is a Justicar–a magician who enforces the rules. Justicars are generally disliked by other magicians, and also frequently have to take care of magical problems no one else wants to deal with. Stephen also has a past with the Vaudrey family, and is very unhappy when asked to look in on a problem.

This is a three book series, that tells how the two men fell in love and how magic unexpectedly shaped their relationship.

Plus other stuff.

Rag and Bone (2016)(8/10)

This story is an offshoot of the Magpie series. Crispin Tredarloe was raised in an illegal magical tradition, and has been struggling to learn how to properly practice magic. Ned Hall is Crispin’s lover–and was displeased to discover he had a natural affinity for magic.

Both men fear being left, and each believes he isn’t good enough for the other, which is the second story-line of the book (the first being the magical problem that Ned has discovered.

I really like the world-building here, and I think the M/M romance fits in well with a world where magic users have to hide their practice from the general populace, since homosexuality could be a death sentence at that time.

The Books of 2018

This was a good year to catch up on some series I’d fallen behind on. I also came across two fabulous books by a new author. There are some great books here.

The Lady Trent series by Marie Brennan

Voyage of the Basilisk (2015)(8/10), In the Labyrinth of Drakes (2016)(8/10), Within the Sanctuary of Wings (2017)(9/10)

I’d had the Lady Trent series on my wish list for a couple years. I finally got the first book, and used gift cards for the next several, then just broke down and bought the last.

This series has some of THE most beautiful covers I have every seen. But beside that, it’s a marvelous story, set in a universe that is similar to the world after the Napoleonic wars, but still quite different, since the world has dragons.

Lady Trent grew up wanting to know about dragons, but education wasn’t something girls were truly allowed to have, since they were expected to marry and breed more ladies and gentlemen. This is the story of how Lady Trent became a natural historian, traveled the world, and generally turned things upside down in her search for knowledge about dragons.

It’s delightful and marvelous and doesn’t shy away from subjects that are of importance to female adventurers.

Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven King (2016)(9/10) [Raven Boys]

I’d pre-ordered this book, and then put off reading it because I didn’t really want to series to end. So I decided I should just re-read the entire series so it’d all be fresh in my mind when I read the final book.

I really adore this story. The main characters are teenagers, four of whom go to an elite private school, and one of whom is the daughter of a psychic who lives in a house of psychics, yet who has no psychic ability of her own.

My favorite character of the series ended up being the character I didn’t like at all in the first book. Ronan is extremely complicated, and was struggling with discovering his father’s body and the inheritance of his family.

Yeah, the other characters are also wonderful, but I adore Ronan.

Mackenzi Lee

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue (2017)(8/10), The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy (2018)(9/10)

The first book is a YA coming of age. Monty is sent on a Grand Tour with his best friend Percy (with whom he has been in love for years) and told that if he can’t straighten himself up, he shouldn’t bother to come home, since his father has a new heir.

I had trouble getting into the first book, because Monty initially felt like a spoiled brat, until you discover just why he drinks and carouses so much.

The second book is about Felicity, Monty’s sister, who wants more than anything to become a doctor; except that women aren’t allowed to become doctors or surgeons.

It’s also a story of misunderstandings and acceptance and fighting for what you want.

Both books are wonderful.

Lish McBride

Freaks & Other Family (2016)(8/10), Firebug (2014) (8/10), Pyromantic (2017)(9/10)

I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Lish McBride, yet I’d get a new book and I’d hold off reading it because OMG WHAT IF I DON’T LIKE IT??!!!

Reader, I am an idiot.

Freaks & Other Family follows the characters from the Necromancer series.

Firebug is a series following Ava, who has the unfortunate power of being able to set things on fire. This is unfortunate not just because a failure of control means she can burn down her home, but because the women in control of the local supernaturals likes to use Firebugs to punish those who don’t follow her orders.

It’s technically the same world as the Necromancer series, but there is no overlap of characters.

It is lovely however.

The Books of 2018

Since I discovered that I can borrow ebooks from the library, I got caught up on a couple mystery series this year.

Sherry Thomas is writing a Lady Sherlock series, which has good some beautiful covers.

A Conspiracy in Belgravia (2017)
The Hollow of Fear (2018)

You can see these are historicals, and are both from the same series.

I love the fancy dresses, and the woman walking away from you into the unknown. And I love the color changes.

Publisher: Berkley

Anna Lee Huber is writing two series that I’m reading.

Verity Kent
This Side of Murder (2017)
Treacherous Is the Night (2018)

The setting is post The Great War, and the art has a look that I (for whatever reason) associate with the Roaring 20s.

They’re interesting, and draw my attention to the woman. Also, as with her other series, the woman is facing away from the viewer, looking out into the world.

Publisher: Kensington

Lady Darby
A Brush with Shadows (2018)

This is obviously set at an earlier time than the other series, and the portrayal of the woman is more realistic than the other series, but the theme of the woman standing alone and looking out away from you is still there.

I like that although the covers are very different, they still have common elements.

Publisher: Berkley

A Treacherous Curse (2018) Deanna Raybourn

The covers for this series have all been beautiful. I enjoy looking at the different elements.

Publisher: Berkley

Lady Helena Investigates (2018) Jane Steen

This is far simpler than the previous covers, but it’s still very appealing.

Publisher: Aspidistra Press

Why Kill the Innocent (2018) C.S. Harris

I actually didn’t much care for several of the covers in this series, primarily because the model used for Sebastian didn’t look a thing like Sebastian should have looked like.

This lets you imagine more what the character looks like, which I very much prefer. I really did not like the model facing you–at least when that model didn’t look like the main character. But I think in general I prefer the looks of the main character to be left to your imagination.

I also really like the starkness of the cover. The series has been rather dark the past several books, and this matches that feel very well.

Publisher: Berkley

Berkley almost swept the field with their covers this year–they’re all beautiful and evocative.

The Books of 2018

Now onto some of my favorite covers for Fantasy books!

Very Important Corpses (2017) Simon R. Green

All the books in this series are similar–a man with his back to you walking into the gloom.

I think they actually make the books feel darker than they actually are, but I also suppose that at this point the fact that it’s Simon R Green should really give you a point of reference to the amount of irreverence to be found within.

I only wish the books made it more clear which number this book was in the series (that’s really a personal nit).

Publisher: Severn House Digital

Deadly Assessments (2018) Drew Hayes

I really liked all the covers for this series.

The first three books emphasize the accounting/finance angle to the series–because this book is about a vampire accountant.

All the books have drops of blood somewhere on some paperwork, and all have the same label-type-font that signals the kind of geek who has always carefully labeled and organized things.

Each cover is distinct, yet also clearly belonging to the same series. They’re fun, and give you a good idea as to the content.

Publisher: REUTS Publications

The Myth Manifestation (2018) Lisa Shearin

I actually hadn’t realized she’d switched to self-publishing, since the cover has only a few changes to the patterns of the earlier covers (the fonts are slightly different, for the most part).

I think the cartoon-y feel makes it clear this is a fun book (rather than a dark and serious book) and throughout this series, I love the fact that throughout the series, Mac is depicted as clearly being an active participant in the events and always positioned in front of Ian.

She is always wearing reasonable clothes, and is obviously not going to put up with any nonsense.

I think these covers do an excellent job of showing that this books are full of action, but fun and not taking themselves too seriously.

Publisher: NLA Digital LLC

Pyromantic (2017) Lish McBride

This is another relatively simple-looking cover, but it also gives you a distinct feel for the story. The two characters are bound together in some manner, although it seems also pretty clear they’re at odds at the start of the story.

The fire is obvious, which is good, since Ava is a fire-starter, and the red emphasizes that. It’s also clean and relatively straight forward.

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

Dark Queen (2018) Faith Hunter

I love that from the start ROC has always portrayed Jane as active–doing something, usually fighting and getting ready to go kick ass.

Even when they didn’t have a Native American model. Even when the outfits were (when you looked closely) patched together bits and pieces that were individually ridiculous. Even when they didn’t get it quite right, they still tried their best to make the covers true to Jane’s character.

I’m delighted that this series has become so popular and long-running, and that they’ve stayed true to what they started with that first cover.

And I absolutely adore their current model.

This is a wonderful addition to the series, and also ties into the feel of Nell’s spin-off series.

I love this cover.

Publisher: ROC

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy (2018) Mackenzi Lee

The cover of this book, and the previous book in the series, is wonderful.

Both books give you a clear feeling for the main character (in the first book, Monty is a mostly dissolute rake. His sister, Felicity, is clearly something completely different, and that’s obvious from the cover.

The font and the little doodles help to show it’s a YA book, and it doesn’t take itself too series, and they also tie the two books together perfectly.

More importantly, they’re quite unlike anything else I came across, which made them stand out.

I’ll admit, that initially I didn’t care for the title, but it actually ties in extremely well with the story, in a way I was completely not expecting.

Lovely.

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Within the Sanctuary of Wings (2017) Marie Brennan

These covers are just flat-out gorgeous.

They are art, and I kinda want posters of them, except I don’t have anywhere to put posters.

But I still kinda want them because they did such and incredible job with these covers.

Publisher: Tor Books

Pretty good mix of publishers this year!

The Books of 2018

As I don’t much care for the kissing parts of romances, these are unsurprisingly non-traditional romance covers, even though they are boinking books. So keep in mind these are ALL boinking books.

Hamilton’s Battalion: A Trio of Romances (2017) Rose Lerner, Courtney Milan, Alyssa Cole

This is a trio of novellas set during the revolutionary war, and revolving around Alexander Hamilton, in that his wife is collecting stories of those times.

These are LGBTQ romances, just so you are aware.

What do I love about this cover? First, it’s simple–four major colors. Second, there is no clinch, but the heart coming out of the rifle makes it clear these are romances. Third, the simple cut-outs of the soldiers make it clear the time frame. Especially with the background of the soldiers being the Declaration of Independence (that is a GORGEOUS touch there).

Also, I think it’s pretty clear from the two figures that these are LGBTQ stories.

I just think it’s an extremely well-done cover, and quite lovely.

Spectred Isle (2017) K.J. Charles

This is a M/M romance, and it’s an historical, although one sent in the early 20th century, in this case between the two world wars.

It’s also a paranormal romance, with one of the characters a magician, and the other a skeptic who works for someone who believes in the supernatural.

I love the lines of this cover, as well as how the man and the font evoke the roaring twenties, while the Green Man represents the magic.

Plus it’s just a pretty cover.

Unfit to Print (2018) K.J. Charles

This is another M/M romance.

The historical aspect is shown in the background of the man’s silhouette, of the tenement houses, but the silhouette is what I liked best. It’s quite clearly a man of African descent even though we don’t really have any of the details about him.

The text is also another hint to the fact this is an historical.

Again, I love the lines of the cover, the layout, the font, the fact that it gets across so many aspects of the story with a relatively straight-forward design.

And the last thing I want to note is that NONE of these books came out of traditional publishing houses. They were all published by the authors.

Which makes the covers all the more impressive, since I think we all have come to expect self published books to be a nightmare of fonts, horrible photoshop, and general awfulness.

These covers are instead wonderful.

The Books of 2018

And now, for the 2018 reading wrap-up!

My posts for the year look like the following:
Terrible Covers (this post)
Great Covers: Romance
Great Covers: Fantasy
Great Covers: Mystery

My favorite YA books of 2018
My favorite audio books of 2018
My favorite paranormal romance books of 2018
My favorite romance books of 2018
My favorite fantasy books of 2018
My favorite mystery books of 2018

For the most part, I try to limit this lists to books published in the past 2 years, but I’ll also make note of some older books I hadn’t read for a decade or so, and want to draw your attention to if you haven’t read them before.

Since only ONE book made my terrible list this year, we’ll open with that.

MY SINGLE HATED COVER OF 2018

The Duchess Deal: Girl Meets Duke (2017) Tessa Dare

This is NOT a terrible cover in and of itself. In fact it’s pretty inoffensive. Where it fails utterly is that it has literally nothing to do with the content and characters of the book.

“Only one act is required on your part. You must permit me to visit your bed. I’m well aware of my distasteful appearance. You need not fear any crude or lascivious attentions from my quarter. All encounters will be as dignified as possible. No lights, no kissing. And of course, once you are pregnant with my heir, we will be done.”

Ash was horribly scarred in the war, keeps the heavy drapes in his house closed, covers up as much as possible in front of everyone, and hates being seen in public.

That cover has absolutely NOTHING to do with the book, and in fact gives you no true impression of the characters AT ALL. Which is what makes the cover so terrible. Because Ash’s scarring is what makes him who he is–in fact it’s the reason he chooses Emma for his bride–because she desperately needs security, and he hopes granting her that will make up for having to be married to him.

Ash is angry and broody and self-loathing, and the book is as much about his coming to terms with Emma accepting him as he is as about the romance between the two (and to me, the far more interesting part of the story).

Also, Emma is awesome.

“I will not be your mistress. My body is not for let.”

“That can’t be entirely true. You’re a seamstress, aren’t you? Your fingers are for let.”

“If you don’t know the difference between a woman’s fingers and her womb, I would definitely not share a bed with you.”

Did I want to see scars and deformity? Of course not. But they could have at least tried to make the cover match the story.

And BTW, despite the boinking, it’s quite a good story, and I really liked seeing Ash’s growth and change. And I liked even more that there was no miracle solution–it was him coming to terms with his changed circumstances, and accepting himself.

Now for my FAVORITE! Pulling apart the year as a whole to look at the different parts!

I read a ridiculous number of books this year. Ridiculous. I blew past last year’s total of 189 in October and kept on reading.

Total books read: 230

First up: Book format

The trend of reading primarily eBooks has continued, although I did listen to more audio books this year than in any year previous.

You’ll also notice that I did a lot of re-reading this year. The past year was difficult for me mentally, so I did a lot of comfort reading–reaching for those books I already know I love to escape my brain.

The multiple formats simply means that I own the book in more than one format–most commonly I owned a mass market paperback and then got the same book in electronic format, but audio books also count. Especially since I rarely listen to a fiction book I haven’t already read.

The multiple formats was lower than I might have expected, because a lot of the books I was looking for were available from the library as ebooks or audio books. (There are weird gaps in what the library has though.)

eBook: 179
Audio: 30
Trade Paperback: 18
Paperback: 3
Hardback: 0
Multiple Formats: 48
Re-read: 128

I like this chart because you can see precisely when I got an eReader, and exactly how that changed my reading habits.

I also think that kindle and the ability to read the same book across devices has helped increase the number of books I’ve read, since any time I have any kind of wait I can just pull out my phone and start reading. I no longer have to make sure to put a book in my pocket or purse, since as long as I have my phone, I have a book to read.

Next: Genre

These numbers are going to be a little more confusing, because a single book (especially the books I read) can be multiple genres (fantasy AND mystery AND romance). But for the most part things were pretty evenly split between fantasy and mystery.

Fantasy: 105
Mystery: 99
Romance: 42
Comic: 24
YA: 7
Non-Fiction: 6
Anthology: 3
History: 2
Cookbook: 1

If you’re curious, that dip in mysteries occurred after Grandmom died. It was a while before I was in the mood to read straight-up mysteries, since then I’d often think, “Grandmom would have loved this…”

Finally, the thing that made me start tracking all these stats in the first place: the authors.

It has been a constant complaint (mostly by men) that there just aren’t that many female authors out there. This is, of course, bullshit, but I figured the best way to show that would be to a look at my own reading habits over time.

This year, as with most other years, my reading was relatively evenly split between male and female authors.

Female: 105
Male: 91
Joint + Anthology: 34
Initials: 0
Male Pseudonym: 0
Anthology: 15
Joint: 19

Male: 40%
Female: 46%
Joint + Anthology: 15%

I’ve actually plotted both genre and author gender on a single chart, to see how reading romances affected things, but even in chart form it’s still confusing and it turns out mysteries are more closely correlated to author gender than any other genre of book I read. And even then, the relationship doesn’t always hold up. (FREX, the year I re-read all of Donna Leon’s 20-some Brunetti mysteries.)

Regardless, my point remains that it is not difficult to find excellent books my female authors to read. So if someone complains they don’t know of any good female authors, send ’em my way. Chances are I can recommend something they’d like.

And that’s 2017 in reading!

The Books of 2017

The Best Urban and Supernatural Fantasy of 2017
The Best Historical Fantasy and YA of 2017
The Best Mysteries of 2017
The Best Comics of 2017

The Best Book Covers of 2017:
Mystery
Comics
Fantasy

The Book Covers I HATED This Year.

General note on links: Clicking on the text of a title should take you to my review. Clicking on the image of the cover should take you directly to the Amazon page for that book. Clicking on the author’s name should take you to my page for that author, which includes a chronological list of all their books I’ve read, and a compendium of my reviews for that author.

And now a bit of everything else:

Historical Romance

A Dangerous Deceit (2017) Alissa Johnson (8.5/10) – Gentleman Thief-Takers book 3

I loved the previous two books in this series, and so was happy to snatch this up. Although the two previous books are are closely tied together, with the main characters being sisters, this book is far more of a stand-alone, and far different from most historical romances.

For one, the female romantic lead has a disability. This seems minor to a modern reader, but at the time such disabilities were enough to cause people to be locked away; thus there is a great necessity for her to hide her disability even though it causes problems between her and the hero.

Secondly, there is a good mystery here as well.

I recommend all three books in this series, starting with A Talent for Trickery but this one can be read on its own.

Non-Fiction

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions  (2014) Randall Munroe (10/10)

Not at all recent, but I finally got around to reading it.

If you have come across xkcd, you should definitely own and read this book. It is a marvel and a delight.

Passionate Minds: Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment (2006) David Bodanis (8/10)

Again, not recent, but if you have any interest in the women who shaped science and mathematics and engineer, but we forgotten or hidden by the men of the day, you’ll want to add Emilie du Chatelet to your list of women to discover.

2017 Monthly Roundups
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Michelle’s All-Time Favorite Books

Although comics get more props than they used to, but not as much as they deserve, I’m mentioning comics that I loved this year, even though most of them are a little older.

Princeless: Vol. 1: Save Yourself (2012) Jeremy Whitley and Mia Goodwin (10/10)

Princeless, Vol 2: Get Over Yourself (2014) Jeremy Whitley and Emily Martin (8/10)

Princeless Vol 3: The Pirate Princess  (2014) Jeremy Whitley, Rosy Higgins, Ted Brandt (8/10)

These are utterly delightful. The oldest group of small people in my life are just reaching the sweet spot for these comics (9-11), so I’m looking forward to this coming year’s birthday gifts.

Princess Adrienne Ashe is a tomboy and a twin and does NOT want to be locked in a tower to await rescue by a prince. So she decides the best thing to do is rescue herself and her sisters.

Princess Ugg Vol. 1 (2014) Ted Naifeh and Warren Wucinich (8/10)

Princess Ugg Volume 2 (2015) Ted Naifeh, Warren Wucinich (8/10)

This is a similar theme to Princeless, except for it’s for teens and older (there is partial nudity, but it’s not sexy–it’s just a body; and there is acknowledgement of boinking).

Ulga wants to save her people, and believes that the only way to do so is to learn how to deal with the “civilized” world, so she goes down to into the low lands to the Princess Academy, which does NOT teach what she was hoping or expecting to learn.

It’s pretty marvelous.

Mockingbird Vol. 1: I Can Explain (2016) Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Ibrahim Moustafa, Joelle Jones (9/10)

Mockingbird Vol. 2: My Feminist Agenda (2017) Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Sean Parsons, Rachelle Rosenberg (8/10)

This is confusing as all get out, and takes a couple of reads, but is still fabulous.

Bobbi Morse has changed from secret agent to superhero after being given experimental drugs to save her life. Vol 1 is how she deals with the changes. Vol 2 is how she deals with her ex-husband being accused of murder.

It’s extremely confusing, yet extremely wonderful.

Rivers of London Volume 3: Black Mould (2017) Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan

Rivers of London: Vol. 4 Detective Stories (2017) Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Luis Guerrero, Lee Sullivan (8/10)

The best thing about the Rivers of London comics is they let you see more about secondary characters. Body Work showed us how Peter came to start working with Guleed, and Black Mould has them working together more and lets us spend more time with her.

Detective Stories not only lets us see Peter taking his detective tests, but we get see more of Leslie May’s past and the differences between Leslie and Peter. (I keep hoping all this means Leslie is working undercover.)

Plus, I just found them fun stories.

Rat Queens Vol. 1: Sass & Sorcery (2013) Kurtis Wiebe and Roc Upchurch (9/10)

THIS IS NOT FOR KIDS.

This has sex and drugs and drinking and fighting and is utterly delightful.

Vol 3 went completely off the rails, but I have hopes that the recent reboot will make it better,so we’ll have to wait and see.

But this first volume? Completely irreverent and utterly delightful.

The Books of 2017

My favorite genre after fantasy is mystery. Nothing like a good murder to make me feel better about my life. I have several mystery authors that I pre-order because even if those mysteries aren’t excellent, they are still thoroughly enjoyable.

Police

Strange Shores (2010/2012) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Victoria Cribb (9/10) – Inspector Erlendur book 9

This is not a super-recent book, but it’s a series I loved and that I don’t think got enough attention.

The Inspector Erlendur series set in Iceland; the main character is depressive and brooding, but very good at his job, which makes up for his moodiness. Erlendur suffered a terrible trauma in his childhood and that single event is a theme running through the entire series–and also why he is so tenacious on the job.

If you are looking for a good mystery series I highly recommend checking Erlendur out. Stranger Shores is the final book in this series, so do NOT start here. Go get Jar City and work your way forward.

Earthly Remains  (2017) Donna Leon (8/10) – Brunetti book 26

I love this series.

This is not a book for those unfamiliar with Brunetti, but if you’ve even read a couple of stories you should love it. The corruption in Venice and Italy are a theme of these books as much as the food and mysteries. For the most part, Brunetti accepts this corruption as the way things are done, but in this book it finally gets to him and makes him wonder why he bothers.

It’s an excellent addition to the series, but like the Erlendur series, I recommend starting at Death at La Fenice, the first book in the series.

Historical

Where the Dead Lie (2017) C.S. Harris (8/10) – Sebastian St Cyr book 12

This book is a bit darker than the previous books in this series. Sebastian and his wife, Hero, discover more about the abuse of children in London in the early 1800s than anyone would ever want to know.

This remains an excellent series and I recommend reading the whole thing, starting at What Angels Fear and going forward.

A Curious Beginning (2015) Deanna Raybourn (8/10) – Veronica Speedwell

I’ve read other Deanna Raybourn mysteries and found them ok, but I got bored and stop reading at some point, so I waited for the first book in this series to go on sale before I bought it.

I very much liked the first book–the adventures of a young woman alone in the world, embarking on adventures that may well have to do with her mysterious past.

I didn’t like the second book quite as well, but it was good.

The Books of 2017

Historical

A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent  (2013) Marie Brennan (8/10)

If I’d read this book when it came out, it’d certainly have made one of the best covers of the year. As it happens, I’m late to the game, but I do get to tell you how much I enjoyed the book now I finally read it. It’s more straight up fantasy than historical, except that it has a very strong feel of an historical, with dress and mores and discovery.

This is the first book in this series.

YA

Ghost Girl in the Corner (2016) Daniel José Older (8.5/10) – Shadowshaper Cypher novella

Shadowhouse Fall  (2017) Daniel José Older (8/10) – Shadowshaper Cypher book 2

One of the things Daniel José Older does extremely well is write female characters–especially teenagers. It’s obvious that not only does he have teenage girls somewhere in his life, but that he LISTENS to them. Not just their chatter, but what is important and the hassles they deal with every day.

The other reason I really like this series is that as a white woman from a rural area, I have no knowledge of what it’s like to be an person of color living in a big city–it’s just as foreign to me as being a Hobbit traveling through Mordor. But unlike Hobbits, teenagers of color exist. Hopefully this gives me a bit of understanding of something I can’t experience.

And the fantasy elements are MARVELOUS.

The first book in this series is Shadowshaper

Firebug (2014) Lish McBride (8/10)

This book is outside my normal window for the best books of the year, but I love Lish McBride’s writing and I only put off reading it because her books never go on sale, so I had to wait until someone bought it for me as a gift.

She writes stories where the fantastic is in our world, but most of us can’t see it, so these teenagers have to navigate both being teenagers and members of a world most people don’t know about–in this case the main character is a fire-starter and an orphan who has been raised by the past several years by a family friend, and is trying her hardest to remain outside of the supernatural cabal she had to choice but to join.

The Books of 2017

As usual, I read a lot of urban and supernatural fantasy, and most of the series I read as new releases fell into that category, so this is going to be the biggest post (as usual). There are a couple older books here that I didn’t know about or didn’t read when they first came out, but most of these books are from authors I pre-order when I see they have a book coming out.

The Rook (2012) Daniel O’Malley (9/10)

Stiletto (2016) Daniel O’Malley (9.5/10)

I had Rook on my wish-list forever, picked it up on sale, then it sat on my TBR pile forever. Once I started it, however, I wanted more and immediately read Stiletto.

This is an urban-fantasy-secret-agent thriller with amnesia and the British government and foreign spies.

You should really check it out.

The Ghoul Vendetta (2017) Lisa Shearin (9/10) – SPI Files book 4

Lisa Shearin’s SPI Files are an auto-buy for me. It’s secret agents and urban fantasy, which are my catnip, but it also has an intelligent and sensible main character who is NOT having a relationship with her handsome partner.

This series starts with The Grendel Affair.

Battle Hill Bolero (2017) Daniel José Older (8.5/10) – Bone Street Rumba book 3

Daniel José Older is fast-becoming one of my favorite authors. He writes of people and places I have no knowledge of, and creates amazing female characters (second only to Charles de Lint in my opinion).

This is the third book of the Bone Street Rumba, and the closing of that specific story arc.

This series starts with Half-Resurrection Blues but you could also begin with Salsa Nocturna.

Cold Reign (2017) Faith Hunter (8.5/10) – Jane Yellowrock book 11

Flame in the Dark (2017) Faith Hunter (8.5/10) – Soulwood book 3

Faith Hunter has been an auto-buy for me for quite awhile now. She has two series set in the same world: Jane Yellowrock (the Cherokee vampire hunter) and Soulwood (Nell, who left the religious sect/cult where she was raised).

Jane’s series has boinking, Nell’s series does not.

In both series the women are strong but also do not fit into society at all: Jane because she was found as an older child with no memory of her past; Nell because she was raised in an extremely strict and paranoid religious sect. Nell’s main story arc ended with this book. Jane’s is still going strong.

Additionally, if you like audio books I very much enjoy Kristine Hvam’s narration. I’ve been slowly listening to Jane’s series and am just about caught up. I also discovered that this has allowed me to retain the story elements without having to re-read the series to each new publication. (Not that I mind doing so–it’s just that we’re on book 11 now.)

The Jane Yellowrock series begins with Skinwalker. Nell’s series begins with Blood of the Earth.

New Watch (2012/2013) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield (8/10) – Night Watch book 5

I still haven’t read the sixth and final book of the Night Watch series, but did finally get around to reading the fifth.

That’s the problem I have with series I adore–I don’t want them to end, so if I know a book is the final book I’ll keep putting off reading it. Luckily, that’s easy enough to do with the Night Watch series because each book has three intertwining but self-contained stories.

If you’ve missed my previous million recommendations, it’s a Russian urban fantasy series, and I utterly love it. Go get Night Watch and read forward from there.

Who Killed Sherlock Holmes (2016) Paul Cornell (8/10) – Shadow Police book 3

Paul Cornell is quickly becoming an auto-buy. It took me forever to read the first Shadow Police book, but once I got into it, I loved it. But for some reason I put off reading the second book, which was also excellent, and after finishing it, I immediately started the third book. Although this series is clearly not over, a couple of important arcs were tied up in this book (as much as new arcs began).

A word of warning: this series is very dark, and a lot of bad things happen to the characters. But it isn’t gratuitous horribleness–in this book most of what happens to Quill is a direct result of his NOT dealing with the events in the previous book. And that, of course, is what makes me like the series so much.

You definitely want to start with the first book, London Falling, and read forward from there. Each book has a self-contained story arc, but a LOT happens in each book that has tremendous bearing on the following books.

The Furthest Station (2017) Ben Aaronovitch (8/10) – Rivers of London book 6

The Hanging Tree (2017) Ben Aaronovitch (8.5/10) – Rivers of London novella

I love the Rivers of London series: I enjoy the comics, I love Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s narration, and I adore all the story lines.

My theory is that Ben Aaronovitch keeps writing side-stories that he can’t put into the novels, so those have become the comics, a novella, and a single stand-alone audio short story.

It means there is a lot to keep up on, but is also means that there is generally something coming out to further the story along. Even more importantly, it also means we get to learn more about secondary characters, such as Guleed, who is utterly marvelous.

This series begins with Midnight Riot.

White Hot (2017) Ilona Andrews (8/10) – Hidden Legacy book 2

This is the middle book of Ilona Andrews’ Hidden Legacy series. One reason I don’t adore this series is that there is a lot of boinging and complicated romantic entanglements. I’d have prefered more about the secondary characters and way less boinking. But it’s still a good series.

The Books of 2017

I have a list of mystery authors I tend to auto-buy, however, only two of those authors made this list. The others were books I found on sale or had on my wish-list and received as gifts.

Publisher Tally
Berkley: 3/4

A Study In Scarlet Women (2016) Sherry Thomas (Berkley)

This is a gorgeous cover, letting you know that this is an historical mystery and the main character is a woman who goes out and does things. I think the light streaming from the opening door is a particularly nice touch.

This is the first book in this series.

Where the Dead Lie (2017) C.S. Harris (Berkley)

I’ll be honest, I don’t much like this model as Sebastian. However, they did a fantastic job despite the model not matching the description of Sebastian, so although this isn’t my favorite of her covers, it’s still beautiful.

This series begins with What Angels Fear

Earthly Remains (2017) Donna Leon (Atlantic Monthly Press)

All of her covers are scenes from Venice, and even if they don’t necessarily grab your attention the way other covers do, they are pretty, and they let you know that you are getting a Brunetti mystery.

It may be at this point I just have a Pavlovian response to this covers, knowing that within is not just a mystery, but the atmosphere and food of Venice.

This series begins with Death at La Fenice

A Perilous Undertaking (2017) Deanna Raybourn (Berkley)

This is a gorgeous cover. It’s really a piece of art.

It makes me wish I loved the story as much as the cover.

This is the second book in the series, which starts with A Curious Beginning

The Books of 2017

If you can’t figure out why I like these covers, then there is no hope for you.

Mockingbird Vol. 1: I Can Explain (2016) Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Ibrahim Moustafa, Joelle Jones (Marvel)

Mockingbird Vol. 2: My Feminist Agenda (2017) Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Sean Parsons, Rachelle Rosenberg (Marvel)

Rivers of London Volume 3: Black Mould (2017) Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan (Titan)

Rat Queens Vol. 1: Sass & Sorcery  (2013) Kurtis Wiebe and Roc Upchurch (Image)

Princeless: Vol. One: Save Yourself (2012) Jeremy Whitley and Mia Goodwin (Action Lab Entertainment)

The Books of 2017