The Grand Tour Or The Purloined Coronation Regalia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
Started: 4/9/19
Finished: 4/14/19
The second of the Cecelia and Kate novels, maybe not quite as delightful as the first one, but close and still fun.
fantasy
The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
Started: 4/7/19
Finished: 4/9/19
Steampunk fantasy novella set in post-Civil War New Orleans. I’m not always a fan of stories that use gods to fuel the magic system (capricious gods that act like children annoy me), but I liked it this time. Details built an alternate New Orleans without a lot of exposition, and the characters were well done.
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova
Started: 3/25/19
Finished: 3/27/19
First in the Brooklyn Brujas series, young adult. The big adventure/quest part took me by surprise. It’s not that I didn’t expect the book to have one, but I didn’t expect it to be like that. In a good way.
The Skeleton Takes a Bow by Leigh Perry
Started: 3/23/19
Finished: 3/25/19
Book 2 in the Family Skeleton series. Still fun.
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss
Started: 3/17/19
Finished: 3/21/19
First in the Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series, we have Dr. Jeckyll’s daughter teaming up with Holmes and Watson in 1890s London to find the murderous Mr. Hyde and get the monetary reward because poor Miss Jeckyll is dead broke. The book is being written by a character we don’t meet (in the narrative, anyway) until much later in the book, but we know she’s writing it right away because the other characters have conversations with her about the narrative, within the narrative. It’s loads of fun.
Update: NOPE. It started out fun and interesting, but the writing style got really irritating (although not the interruptions from characters – that was still mostly fun). It’s full of exposition, all tell and no show, and it’s all happening in the dialogue, which makes the dialogue really clunky and painful to read. It’s a pity. I really wanted to like this book.
The Dark Days Deceit by Alison Goodman
Started: 3/13/19
Finished: 3/16/19
Last in the Lady Helen series, we move the action to Bath and OH the drama and the men fighting over Lady Helen (even though she’s betrothed!) and the SECRETS and the clothes and poor Darby, and oh yes, fighting the big bad nasty demon-types. And I knew it, I KNEW it, and I’m not going to tell you what I knew because spoilers, but it’s nice to be right.
This was fun. I’m bummed there’s no more.
The Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman
Started: 3/10/19
Finished: 3/13/19
Second in the Lady Helen series, we move the action to Brighton and Lady Helen has to dress like a man (gasp) and keep secrets from the duke who wants to marry her while also trying not to be attracted to the earl who may have murdered his wife (but clearly did not). Also, there’s magic and power and killing nasty demon-types.
The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman
Started: 3/6/19
Finished: 3/9/19
This is the first in a trilogy about a Regency period noblewoman with parents who died scandal-ridden, who, as she turns 18 and starts her first season in London, finds out she’s got this supernatural power to fight nasty demon-types, and she might just have to save the world (but not in book 1). And of course, her mentor is a smoldering earl accused of murdering his wife. Such fun!
Baking Bad by Kim M. Watt
Started: 2/22/19
Finished: 3/1/19
A cozy mystery set in present-day England with dragons. It’s cute, it’s lightly humorous, it set up a lot of background stuff so I’m hoping for a full series (there’s one sequel, Christmas-related), and even though the whodunit part wasn’t that hard to figure out, I still very much enjoyed it.
The Effigy Engine by Scott Lynch
Started: 2/14/19
Finished: 2/15/19
This short story is about a mercenary company of wizards who encounter the fantasy version of a tank during one of their battles. It’s a funny idea, told in a funny way, and I am looking forward to more tales of the Red Hats.
The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Michael Swanwick
Started: 2/5/19
Gave up: 2/7/19
This could have been (and might be, to a different reader) an interesting story about belonging and ownership of self and taking action to control your life, but it felt like several stories all muddled together. It starts in a factory with child labor, but it leaves there quickly (and abruptly), with no sign any of that will be revisited. Then it switches to a school, with great details about tiny things that appear to have nothing to do with the plot (but they’re neat). In both settings so far, there are off-hand crude comments involving sexualizing young girls that I found really disturbing. We’re following one main character, but I have no idea what she’s going to do or even what she wants to do. I gave it up.
The Problem of the Missing Miss by Roberta Rogow
Started: 1/31/19
Finished: 2/3/19
I’m not sure what this book is expecting of me. Sometimes the tone is light and comic, with a gruff old man harrumphing about his companions, and then the plot will get into sex trafficking and the abuse of young girls and it’s serious and disturbing, but in a light, comic tone…? It’s the first in a series about Charles Dodgson and Arthur Conan Doyle teaming up to solve crimes. I wanted to like it more than I did.
Song Against Shadow by Anne E.G. Nydam
Started: 1/31/19
Gave up: 1/31/19
I picked this one because the author will be at the convention I’m going to in a couple of weeks, but I gave up on it almost immediately. The writing was stilted, formal, and boring, and the characters are all high-elf types with ridiculous names, and I am SO not in the mood. Hard pass.
A Skeleton in the Family by Leigh Perry
Started: 1/30/19
Finished: 1/31/19
Supernatural mysteries! I’m a sucker for those, and this detective has a skeleton friend helping. Light, fun, and better written that I expected. It’s nice to be pleasantly surprised by the writing sometimes.
Ash by Malinda Lo
Started: 1/28/19
Finished: 1/30/19
I like fairy tale retellings, and I very much enjoyed this Cinderella retelling with actual fairies (like the fae, the cannot-be-trusted types) in the background.
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone
Started: 1/23/19
Gave up: 1/25/19
This is the first book in the Craft Sequence. I wanted to like it, but I couldn’t get into the story. I didn’t find the characters particularly interesting, and the pacing was odd, so I wasn’t feeling involved. I gave up after a couple of days of avoidance.
The Queen of Sorrow by Sarah Beth Durst
Started: 1/21/19
Finished: 1/23/19
Finishing the Queens of Renthia series, still good, but with more main characters I was left feeling like I needed more time with them. I suppose that’s a good thing – give me more!
The Reluctant Queen by Sarah Beth Durst
Started: 1/19/19
Finished: 1/21/19
Continuing the Queens of Renthia series, highly enjoyable with a surprising ending (in a good way).
The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst
Started: 1/17/19
Finished: 1/18/19
For some reason, I thought there were dragons in this series, but there are not. Figured you should know that up front. However, I REALLY liked this book, and I’m eager to read the next one.
Updraft by Fran Wilde
Started: 1/14/19
Finished: 1/17/19
Cool fantasy, steampunk-ish, and it’s the start of a series, thank goodness, because I need to know more about the world. The main character is a teenage girl who matures as the book continues (also thank goodness), but I’m less invested in her than I am in finding out what on earth the city actually IS.