How to Be a Movie Star (2019) T.J. Klune (How to Be) Josiah Erickson wants to be a movie star. From his first acting role–as a block of cheeses–he has wanted nothing more than to act. Unfortunately, he tends to create stories in his head. A man a few chairs down stood up. He had […]
Fugitive Telemetry (2021) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries) The Preservation Alliance is a peaceful planetary area–which is why most people don’t know what to make of Murderbot. (T)he humans on the Station wouldn’t have to think about what I was, a construct made of cloned human tissue, augments, anxiety, depression, and unfocused rage, a killing […]
Widdershins (2014) Jordan L. Hawk (Whyborne & Griffin) Set in New England in 1897 This is a Lovecraftian story–only without all the racism and misanthropy. One advantage of not being able to picture things in my head is that I can read things like this: Its head was worse, however. Thanks to Christine, I’d spent […]
Body at Buccaneer’s Bay (2021) Josh Lanyon (Secrets and Scrabble) This was delayed, and delayed, and delayed. However, a brief check of her website made it clear that she (like the rest of us) was struggling with the pandemic, and would be unable to meet her publishing schedule. Which, good for her for realizing that, […]
Hexbreaker (2016) Jordan L. Hawk (Hexworld) Set in New York City in 1897. Tom Halloran escaped the death of his family–and his own imprisonment–and became a city cop. But hiding the fact he is a witch is about to become difficult. Hexbreaking was too rare a skill. If anyone found out, they’d want to know […]
If the Fates Allow (2021) Rainbow Rowell This is surprisingly complicated for just 38 pages. That is, of course, because it’s about Christmas, but it’s also about the pandemic. “Hey there!” a man called. Reagan looked up, and her foot hit a patch of ice. She went down quick, landing on one knee— and then […]
Bitter Gold Hearts (1988) Glen Cook (Garrett P.I.) I obviously read this before, because there were passages underlined and I have a review for it. I didn’t remember anything about it though, except that it was a fantasy take on a noir PI, which I generally adore. (See Simon Green‘s Nightside) Garrett is asked to […]
Goblin Fruit (2019) Celia Lake (Mysterious Charm) Set in England in 1924 Lizzie has taken a job for the ministry, hoping it will allow her and her sister to survive–especially since her work during the war hadn’t helped her to get any other jobs. Carillon also does work for the ministry, and keeps a public […]
Possessed by Shadows (2021) Lissa Kasey (Simply Crafty) Alex may be content trying to let his past go, but his brother isn’t. He’d decided to go from police homicide detective, to paranormal detective. I was not a fan. But he didn’t see the same sort of stuff I did, and it seemed to be a […]
Mango, Mambo, and Murder (2021) Raquel V. Reyes (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery) Miriam Quiñones-Smith has finished her PhD in food anthropology, but instead of becoming an author or education, she has moved back to Miami, where her husband was able to find a better paying job closer to support from his family. “I’m a food […]
Marked by Shadows (2020) Lissa Kasey (Simply Crafty) Micah has a complicated past. But he’s happy where he is now: running a craft shop and spending time with Alexis. Even if the ghost tours can be a little stressful. I watched other ghost hunters, or paranormal enthusiasts as they called themselves, do something called ‘provoking […]
Stalked by Shadows (2019) Lissa Kasey (Simply Crafty) Alexis Caine received a medical discharge from the army after witnessing an attack that the government insisted could not have happened the way he stated. After a stint in a mental hospital, he goes home with his twin, to try and restart his life. My social services […]
Last Night at the Telegraph Club (2021) Malinda Lo Set in San Francisco, mostly in 1954-1955 I frequently try to start a book not knowing anything about it. It keeps me from having preconceived notions and all that. But once in awhile I start a book and realize it’s not what I thought it was. […]
Unseen Academicals (2009) Terry Pratchett (Discworld) I’ve owned this book for years (as well as the following two) but I didn’t read. First, because I wasn’t reading a lot of fantasy. Then, because I knew there wouldn’t be any more Discworld books, and I wanted to save the reading of them. Which meant I never […]
Perfect Rhythm (2017) Jae (Fair Oaks) Leontyne Blake grew up wanting nothing more than to escape the small town where she grew up, and now she has that, as pop start Jenna Blake. But at the end of her tour she receives a call from her mother, that Leo’s father has suffered a stroke and […]
The Heartbreak Bakery (2021) A.R. Capetta Syd is finishing up high school while working full time in the Proud Muffin–the bakery and community space that is a second home for so many LGBT teens and adults in Austin. But when Syd is dumped by their girlfriend, the accidentally bake Break-Up brownies which not only breaks […]
A Marvellous Light (2021) Freya Marske (The Last Binding) Set in England prior to The Great War. Maybe 1906 or 1907. After his parents were killed ina car wreck, Robin Blyth has to pick up the pieces of the life they left him and his sister. “You don’t talk about your parents much.” “I am— […]
Outcrossing (2018) Celia Lake (Mysterious Charm) Set in alternate England in 1922. Rufus returned from The Great War unscathed, to a village that doesn’t understand why he returned when their sons and brothers and fathers didn’t. (T)hey found him even more suspicious and – just wrong, one of the wives had called him. “Nothing natural […]
The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks (2021) Mackenzi Lee (Montague Siblings) Nearly 20 years have passed since Monty (and then Felicity) fled England and their father. In the mean time, their younger brother has grown into an adult–but one with his own problems. Adrian has struggled with his mind his entire life, but after […]
The Murder Next Door (2021) Sarah Bell Set in England in 1912. Louisa is startled to discover their next door neighbor has been found dead–and the wife has disappeared with their young son. Ada saw Mrs Pierce hurry away from the house early in the morning, with a look of terror on her face. I […]
The Quid Pro Quo (2021) A.L. Lester (Bradfield Trilogy) Set in England in 1920 Walter met Sylvia when they were both working at the same hospital at Royaumont. They only got the worst cases here now… had done for a while, since the brass had worked out that the lady doctors had a better surgical […]
The Silver Mark (2019) Sarah Painter (Crow Investigations) This is the second book in the Crow Investigations series. Lydia is still trying to make a living as a private investigator, but right now is still only doing so because her uncle (head of the Crow family) lets her use the space above one of his […]
A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem (2020) Manda Collins (A Lady’s Guide) Set in England in 1865 Lady Katherine Bascomb inherited The Gazette after the death of her husband, and has come to thoroughly enjoy running it–including writing articles of her own. Two years ago, her husband, George, had been alive and making her […]
The Fog of War (2021) A.L. Lester (Bradfield Trilogy) Set in England in the summer of 1919. Dr Sylvia Marks returned to the village where her father had been the local doctor, after the end of the war and her time as a surgeon at Royaumont, where she was later joined by Walter, a nurse […]
Making Money (2007) Terry Pratchett (Discworld) The Post Office is going well (to the surprise of Moist as much as everyone else) and perhaps Moist is getting a little bored. Luckily, Vetinari has ideas. “You Have An Appointment Now With Lord Vetinari,” said the golem. “I’m sure I don’t.” “There Are Two Guards Outside Who […]
Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? (2016) Paul Cornell (Shadow Police) The third–and seemingly final–book of the Shadow Police series. The story opens with a bank robbery. ‘I won’t tell you!’ she shouted. ‘I can!’ Kevin insisted, pointing at himself. The stormtrooper paused awkwardly again. He obviously had as little idea as she did what Kevin’s weird […]
Murder Most Actual (2021) Alexis Hall Liza and Hannah are having a bit of struggle with their marriage. A struggle that Hannah tried to help by scheduling a vacation for just the two of them: no internet, no cell services, just the two of them in the wilds of Scotland. Except that Hannah didn’t consult […]
Murder Most Fair (2021) Anna Lee Huber (Verity Kent) Set in England in 1919. I’ll be honest, I haven’t enjoyed this series as much as the Lady Darby series, and have been borrowing the books from the library because of that. But this book I very much enjoyed. The Ardmore problem is mostly in the […]
Dead Dead Girls (2021) Nekesa Afia (Harlem Renaissance Mystery) Set in Harlem, NYC in 1926 Louise Lloyd became famous as a teenager, when she escaped a man who had kidnapped her and two other girls–girls who would have been ignored because they were Black and in Harlem. Ten years later, someone is killing young women, […]
Learned Behaviors (2020) Jayce Ellis (Higher Education) JaQuan Reynolds has dedicated the last 18 years of his life to his daughter. For four years, Tanisha had begged Santa to give her a new mommy, and had stopped believing in him not long after that. Now that she is off to college, he is faced with […]
Pickled Petunia (2021) Dahlia Donovan (Motts Cold Case Mystery) The third Motts mystery finds a young woman at Motts’ door, asking for help in finding her mother. It also find the London detective in charge of the cold case from Motts’ childhood worried that the person who killed her best friend as a child has […]
Faces (2021) A.M. Rose Dorian was born blind, but that blindness came with a gift–the ability to draw the soulmates of those whom he touches. The portrait I draw is the image of the soulmate the way they look when the person sees them for the first time” Hayden knows that soulmates exist–his parents were […]
The Severed Streets (2014) Paul Cornell (Shadow Police) When the Secretary of the Treasury is killed violently and inexplicably, Quill’s group is certain the case falls to their remit–even if they are the only ones who know it. ‘We’ve been given access to … advanced sensor … techniques, the details of which we can’t go […]
Sweetest in the Gale (2020) Olivia Dade (There’s Something About Marysburg) This is actually three novellas, all set in the town of Marysburg: “Sweetest in the Gale”, “Unraveled”, “Cover Me” “Sweetest in the Gale” Griff Conover has worked with Candy Albright since moving to Marysville, and he’s always had his eye on her. But his […]
Thud! (2005) Terry Pratchett (Discworld) I think this might be one of my favorite Discworld novels. Vetinari waved a languid hand. ‘But full carts congesting the street, Vimes, is a sign of progress,’ he declared. ‘Only in the figurative sense, sir,’ said Vimes. It’s coming up on the anniversary of Koom Valley, and things are […]
Galaxies and Oceans (2018) N.R. Walker Apparently my brain things I need to be having feelings. Grief was like the great Southern Ocean; it moved in ebbs and flows, often turbulent and rough, or peaceful and settled, and even over time when I could navigate the waters, the tide never stopped. “(S)ometimes you have to […]
Rend (2018) Roan Parrish (Riven) Matt Argento was abandoned as a child, and from that moment on has never felt himself to be enough. To be deserving. He has a job he loves, but in the back of his mind he still expects everything to be taken away. “You were so used to things being […]
London Falling (2012) Paul Cornell (Shadow Police) Me, to myself. “I haven’t read the Shadow Police series in awhile”. Also me, “It’s really dark.” “I know it’s dark! I read it and listened to it!” “Are you sure you’re up for that right now?” (stomps off in a huff to read London Falling.) Oh. Yeah. […]
Riven (2018) Roan Parrish (Riven) This book is full of so many strong feelings and so much angst, yet bits and pieces of it kept tugging on my mind, so I decided to reread. “Don’t ever apologize for doing what you need to be okay,” he said. But still the shame trickled through me like […]
Death of a Hollow Man (1989) Caroline Graham (Chief Inspector Barnaby) Inspector Barnaby’s wife belongs to the local theater group, so we start during the early rehearsals, and interestingly (for a police procedural) the murder doesn’t happen until opening night (about 40% into the book). So not only do you have to figure out who […]
Going Postal (2004) Terry Pratchett (Discworld) Moist von Lipwig should not have come to Ankh Morpork. Apart from all those repossessions, bankruptcies, and sudden insolvencies, what had he actually done that was bad, as such? He’d only been moving numbers around. After being sentenced to death, he didn’t quite expect the afterlife to be what […]
Open Hearts (2020) K. Evan Coles (Stealing Hearts) Jae-seong Bak love his job as a Nurse Anesthetist, but the swing shifts are starting to get to him as he gets older. For now, he’s back in Boston, where he grew up, and getting ready for his brother’s upcoming wedding. What he didn’t expect was to […]
The Love Study (2020) Kris Ripper To say that Declan has commitment issues is an understatement. He left his boyfriend (and best friend) at the altar, and refuses every offer of permanent employment he receives, preferring to remain with the temp agency. What I especially like about temping at offices: never feeling like I’m trapped […]
Bodyguard (2021) Dassy Bernhard (The Bodyguards) An orphan. With secret superpowers. Who works as a bodyguard. Tang Jun-young had hoped that saving the K-Pop boy band he was guarding flew under the radar, with people paying attention to the musicians rather than the nameless man who saved them. But no such luck, as the chairman […]
The Charm Offensive (2021) Alison Cochrun I am having a really hard time writing this review. Because I keep diving back into the book and reading passages an getting sucked back in. Charlie Winshaw was forced out of the company he helped found, and now he’s hoping to rehabilitate his image by appearing on a […]
Let Me Show You (2019) Becca Seymour (True-Blue) Carter Falon inherited his grandfather’s house and decided to uproot himself to the Kirkby. Unfortunately, the house needs a lot of work. towel. In my haste to get myself together and then answer the door, the dodgy floorboard didn’t even register until my foot slammed through it, […]
Murder in the Cookbook Nook (2021) Ellery Adams (Book Retreat Mysteries) Jane Steward runs Storyton Hall–a retreat for book lovers in a small town in Virginia. A cooking show is going to be recording episodes–and basing the challenges on favorite books and stories of the host. I picked this up because I’ve been enjoying the […]
“Asil and the Not-date” (2020) Patricia Briggs Ages and ages ago, I got the anthology A Fantastic Holiday Season: The Gift of Stories mostly so I could read the Asil story. Which I loved. The anthology for the second Asil story has been sitting on my wish list forever, but after realizing it was available […]
Fortune Favors the Dead (2020) Stephen Spotswood (Pentecost and Parker) Set in New York in 1945. Will Parker ran away to join the circus, to escape her abusive father. But an event one night in 1942 in NYC changes everything, and she ends up working for Lillian Pentecost, a private investigator. “I trust you to […]
Network Effect (2020) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries) MURDERBOT Murderbot has gone off on a research expedition with several of Dr Mensah’s family members. Thiago: “You trust it that much?” Mensah: “With my life, literally. I know what it will do to protect her, and you, and the rest of the team. Of course, it […]