Started: 3/26/20
Finished: 3/27/20
A Green Man story, but completely different from any other Green Man story I’ve ever read. Really good, and it has a sequel…which isn’t out yet, but it’s due out in June! And there are only supposed to be two, so anyone worried about getting stuck in the neverending wait that comes with a new series can stop worrying.
Started: 3/19/20
Finished: 3/26/20
I LOVED this book. It’s super-weird, but the main character is hilarious (I laughed a LOT and had to force myself to stop reading parts out loud to John), and I LOVED it. So excited to read the next one when it comes out (THIS SUMMER!!). Queer necromancers in space. With swords. And hilarity. And death (because necromancers). Also lots of drama – despite the funny character, it is NOT a comedy. I got this from the library, but I need to own it. And re-read it.
Started: 2/26/20
Finished: 3/4/20
Third book in The Raven Cycle (witches, psychics, magic, prep school boys, etc.), and it’s a really good continuation of the story. We get more forward movement, more characterization, more good storytelling, AND it has teenagers being teenager-y and grown-up and all over the place in what feels real, despite the magic. I am waiting impatiently for the 4th book to be available from the library.
Started: 2/14/20
Finished: 2/18/20
Second book in the trilogy with psychics, witches, magic, ghosts, and prep school boys, and it started with a swerve that took me by surprise in a very good way, and I liked this book a LOT. Also, turns out it’s not a trilogy, it’s a…tetralogy?
Started: 1/18/20
Finished: 1/23/20
First in a trilogy with psychics, witches, magic, ghosts, and prep school boys, and I liked it far too much.
Started: 12/2/19
Finished: 12/13/19
First in a series about magic based on Indian culture, set in a desert country with gods and spirits and power-hungry emperor-priests. Really good. I think the sequel follows a different character, and I’m a little bummed about that.
Started: 8/12/19
Finished: 8/18/19
Another book that was good but one I don’t know if I liked. It’s a coming of age story, but the framing device was a little confusing…and then I was totally engrossed in the story, and the framing device sort of starts to make sense near the end (most of the story is within the frame, so it doesn’t matter in the moment), but then the very end made NO sense to me. The book includes an essay by the author about the themes and inspirations, and I can tell you I missed all of that. It did make everything make more sense, and I don’t mean to say that the book didn’t make sense (except for the end, which was confusing), and now I’m not making sense, so I’ll end by saying that this book could be taught in a literature course and the students would get a lot out of it.
Started: 8/4/19
Finished: 8/12/19
A gender-swapped take on The Picture of Dorian Gray, but with magic (okay, like explicit magic). And demons. And sword-fighting! I didn’t love it. It was slow to start, and the two main characters were pretty annoying (they got better), and the demon plot took FOREVER to roll, and the two main characters got the same information from different sources, but the information was identical, and WE, the lucky readers, got to read about it both times, and okay, maybe I didn’t like it, either. I mean, I didn’t hate it. But I probably won’t read the sequel.
Started: 7/28/19
Finished: 7/28/19
I LOVE THIS STORY SO MUCH. I am not ashamed to admit I cried at the end. I was reading it out loud to Jack and he wasn’t sure what to do with me.
Started: 7/26/19
Finished: 7/26/19
Oh, how I liked this novelette. A bad leader, a long-term revenge, pain and suffering. Really good stuff in a very small package. And food! Delicious food!
Started: 7/25/19
Finished: 7/25/19
An eerie short story by the author of that portal fantasy with clones from last year that I liked so much. This one was pretty good. Learn the rules before you use magic!
Started: 7/24/19
Finished: 7/25/19
I loved the voice of the narrator in this short story. Same author as the sad elephant novella, but I would never have guessed that. I feel like the plot is given away in the title, and I’m okay with that.
Started: 6/1/19
Finished: 6/7/19
I’ve been meaning to read this one for a year, and then it got nominated for a Hugo and I got it in the voter’s packet, so yay for me! It’s a story about monsters and monsterslayers in a post-apocalyptic US, set on a Navajo reservation, and it’s pretty great.
Started: 5/7/19
Finished: 5/10/19
A good novella, interesting magic. The story is the member-of-nobility-hides-with-the-common-people-and-learns-a-lesson type, but it’s done well.
Started: 5/4/19
Finished: 5/7/19
The third Cecelia and Kate book was the 2nd best. Told in letters like the first one, although we get Thomas and James’ POVs, too, which is fun. Best, though, is what happened to the mislaid magician in the title. Fun, light, ridiculous, and fun. (Did I mention it was fun?)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!