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Would Like To Meet by Rachel Winters

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Started: 5/16/20
Finished: 5/19/20

It’s a book, not a movie, so while I would call it a rom-com, I suppose it’s more correctly chick lit.  It’s totally a rom-com, and it name-checks every rom-com out there because part of the plot is that it steals the meet-cutes from them.  And just like a rom-com, it was SO OBVIOUS who the love interest was that it was infuriating that no one else seemed to think so.

It was light, it was mostly cute, but it seemed to go a little longer than it had to.  I’d watch the movie, but I wouldn’t re-read the book.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

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Started: 5/6/20
Finished: 5/16/20

A young adult book probably about vampires where the protagonist is only 15….yeah, we’ll see.

Update: it was NOT about vampires (whew), but it was about a special group of people who hunt them (and other supernatural beings), only when they break the law.  I called two major plot points early on.  I was 100% right about one, inconclusive but probably wrong about the second (it’s a series – I could still turn out to be right), and a little surprised by something at the end that I think will turn out to be a misdirect.

I don’t mind guessing plot points, but I HATE when they’re SO OBVIOUS and not a single character has a clue about it.  But I will probably continue reading these.

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

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Started: 5/2/20
Finished: 5/6/20

This book started out really cute, turned absurd, got serious, took a dark turn, and ended on the cute side again without taking into account the darkness.  The second half, especially the last little bit, felt like an exercise rather than a novel, so I can’t say I fully recommend it, at least not as an immersive novel.  On the other hand, it was a really interesting exercise in use of language, and the made up months and days made me laugh, especially toward the end.

A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin

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Started: 4/27/20
Finished: 5/2/20

Having just finished a couple of very pleasant adventure stories with likeable protagonists, I almost physically recoiled at the main character’s attitude in the first few pages.  It’s an adjustment.  It’s also about a murder, so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised.  Pretty much all of the male characters came across as arrogant chauvinists, including (especially) the good guys, so the book was a bit much to take.  I enjoyed it, but I can’t say I liked it.

Song of the Abyss by Makiia Lucier

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Started: 4/26/20
Finished: 4/26/20

Second in the Tower of Wind series, catching up 8 years after the first book.  The library had it available, it was a rainy Sunday, Jack napped and played pretty happily on his own most of the afternoon, and I finished it before I fell asleep Sunday night.  Maybe not quite as good as the first one, but I still enjoyed it very much. I have no idea if there will be more, but both of these worked as standalone books.

Isle of Blood and Stone by Makiia Lucier

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Started: 4/19/20
Finished: 4/26/20

First book in a series (the second one is out, and I’m about to start reading it).  I really enjoyed this one.  Fantasy, but only a very little magic.  It’s set in an island kingdom, and the main characters are mostly nagivators/explorers.  There’s a mystery and supportive families and sea serpents.  Good stuff.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

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Started: 4/12/20
Finished: 4/19/20

I’ve read a couple of this author’s YA books and liked them a lot -they were a pair of heist stories, and I always like a good heist.  This one…I’m not quite halfway and seriously considering quitting.  Premise: the secret societies at Yale are all real and do real magic, and a young woman who can see ghosts is recruited to the watchdog society.  It was a little slow to start, but it was going fine once I got into it, and then there was a really horrifying scene made so much worse for the fantasy elements, and shortly after that there was a really gross scene, and I’m just not sure.  It’s on the horror side of fantasy – not creepy-scary, but maybe a bit body-horror scary.  Maybe I’ll see how I feel about it in the morning.

Update: I kept reading and found I couldn’t put it down.  Nothing else as horrifying or gross happened and the action picked up.  It ended with a setup for the next book, but it’s not a cliffhanger and could work as a standalone.

Update 6 months later: I was reminded of the horrifying scene, and I am horrified all over again and NOT in a good way.  I wish I hadn’t remembered it.  I don’t feel good about this book.  Definitely not for me.

How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse by K. Eason

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Started: 4/1/20
Finished: 4/12/20

I thought this was a standalone, and I was excited to recommend it to you all you people who don’t want to start a new series when only the first book is out…but then I found out it’s the first book in a new series, and it’s the only one out.  But it’s so good!  Fun, funny, magic and sci-fi combined.

Also, new update: there are only supposed to be two books, and the second one is due out in October of this year.

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

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Started: 3/27/20
Finished: 4/1/20

The last book in the psychics/witches/preppy school boys/etc. series that I like entirely too much.  It’s about time something happened.  I mean, stuff has been happening in all of the other books to move the story forward, but this thing they’ve been working toward since the first book is FINALLY HAPPENING.

The ending is good, it’s both unexpected and expected, and I feel like it happened a little too quickly.  I’d realize I was 80% done and think there’s NO WAY it can be done in only the pages remaining.  But it was, and it was good and yay.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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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.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

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Started: 2/14/20
Gave up: 3/9/20

I really liked that other Holly Black trilogy, so I picked this book up from the library.  I couldn’t find time to start reading the physical copy, so I borrowed the audiobook a few days later and listened to it in the car…for as long as I could.  Teenagers and vampires and the angst that goes with a centuries-old vampire who finds something deep and unique and irresistible and different and blah blah blah about a 17-year-old girl and I cannot count the ways in which I do not care.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

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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.

Nyxia Unleashed by Scott Reintgen

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Started: 2/18/20
Finished: 2/26/20

Second book in the Nyxia trilogy, and while I still enjoyed it, I have some major problems with the aliens.  I mean, they’re fine, but they’re written as humans on another planet – hardly any differences, barely even cultural ones.  Doesn’t feel well thought out.

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

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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?

What Could Possibly Go Wrong? by Jodi Taylor

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Started: 2/8/20
Finished: 2/13/20

The next book about time-traveling historians!  Yay!  This is the 6th book in the series, and it has been entirely too long since I read one of these.  It was fun, as usual, and I won’t wait as long to read the next one.

Nyxia by Scott Reintgen

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Started: 2/2/20
Finished: 2/7/20

I picked this one up from the library after a Tor.com post about science fiction that provides hope for humanity.  It’s the first in a trilogy, and I liked it.  I don’t know if it’s officially YA, but the focus is on a bunch of teenagers, and aside from a few kind parents and parent-figures, the adults are Evil-with-a-capital-E.  So, yeah, it’s YA.

Magic For Beginners by Kelly Link

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Started: 1/23/20
Gave up: 2/1/20

I had high hopes for this author, so I picked up this book of her short stories and WOW they’re too weird for me.  I liked the first one, but every one after that was…too odd, or I just didn’t get it.  Maybe a novel would be different.