Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
Started: 10/25/21
Finished: 10/26/21
Recommended to me as fantasy and manners, in a series called Regency Faerie Tales, and how could I not love it?
period
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark
Started: 7/16/20
Finished: 7/18/20
Supernatural detectives in a supernatural version of 1912 Cairo with sky trams and djinn and women’s suffrage as a backdrop. I would read a whole series about this.
The Mislaid Magician Or Ten Years After by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
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?)
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.
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!
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.
Sorcery & Cecilia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
Started: 1/5/19
Finished: 1/7/19
Delightful! A story told in letters between two cousins/best friends, set in Regency England with a bit of magic.
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Started: 12/2/18
Finished: 12/11/18
Female spy captured in Nazi-occupied France tells her story via written confession. Fascinating, funny, sweet. Ultimately the story of a friendship.
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
Started: 9/5/18
Finished: 9/7/18
A well-off Victorian teenager with a bad attitude goes on an adventure with his best friend (who he’s secretly in love with) and his sister (who is awesome and gets her own sequel).
Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng
Started: 8/16/18
Gave up: 8/17/18
Interesting premise: Victorian missionaries travel to the lands of the Fae to try to convert them to Christianity. Our protagonist’s brother never returned, so she heads there to try to find him. And then nothing happens. For a long time. So I gave up.
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
Started: 8/7/18
Finished: 8/11/18
LOVED this. The Civil War got interrupted by the zombie apocalypse, and while slavery technically ended (because everyone is needed to fight zombies), really all the former slaves got drafted to be the front line in the fight against the zombies. Young adult, really strong voice, great main character. I think (I hope) there will be a sequel.
American War by Omar El Akkad
Started: 1/28/18
Finished: 2/3/18
Speculative fiction, second American civil war begins 60 years from now, the south refuses to give up oil. Told entirely from the point of view of a young southern woman fighting, not for the cause (she doesn’t care about oil), but because the war (and the north) destroyed everything she knew and loved. It felt real and dirty and uncomfortable, and I’m not sure I liked it, but it was good.