I confess I’m obsessed with Veronica Franco, Lucrezia Borgia, and Giulia Tofana. All three of these women were incredible exReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
I confess I’m obsessed with Veronica Franco, Lucrezia Borgia, and Giulia Tofana. All three of these women were incredible examples of “don’t judge a book by its cover”. The Assassin of Venice takes place roughly a couple of decades after Lurezia’s lifetime, during Veronica’s, but around a century before Giulia’s. Do I really just like Renaissance women and the idea of them making any combination of sex, intellect, power, and/or violence work in their favor? Why yes, yes I do. Am I under an assumption that all the stories are true? No, no I’m not. Let a girl dream.
Alyssa Palombo takes us readers back to the early half of 16th-century Venice, where Honest Courtesans ply their trade and the Council of Ten watch over the city-state to keep it free of any and all outside influence. Venice was a vitally important port city to Italy during the Renaissance and the military security of the country, the Adriatic Sea, and a chunk of the Mediterranean depended on the Italians due to the threat of the Ottoman Empire from the East. Italy was insular and paranoid, with good reason. Political intrigue and the trading of secrets was a national sport.
The plot of The Assassin of Venice is a good one, romantic and dramatic with an almost-cinematic feel to it. It would make a good movie. That doesn’t necessarily mean the book was executed in the same manner. While well-paced, I never once felt concerned for the characters in this story. I never once felt like any of them were in any real danger. I actually felt like they were being overdramatic more than once and not seeing the forest for the trees. There were also quite a few speech anachronisms in the protagonist’s inner narrative that made me wish the editor had done a bit more thorough job.
It’s a diverting read, if not too exciting or challenging. I think you’ll love it if you love your historical fictions heavier on the fiction side and a bit soapier without a lot of accurate worldbuilding or detail. If you’re looking for accuracy and high stakes, then I’d look for another story.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Tropes: Queer Representation (more than one LGBTQ+ character); Historical (17th century England); Forbidden Romance (physician and patient, but they dTropes: Queer Representation (more than one LGBTQ+ character); Historical (17th century England); Forbidden Romance (physician and patient, but they don’t become familiar until he stops being her physician); Interfaith Couple (Christian and Jewish); Forced Proximity (for the time period); Yearning and Pining like Pine Trees. (Fated mates is also listed as a trope but since there’s no magical element to this story I’m leaving it off).
Sometimes you get interested in a book due to Shiny Cover Syndrome and it works out great!
The Phoenix Bride was a lyrical, engrossing, romantic, and lovely book to read on a dreary day like today (where I live, anyway). If you like your historical romances to be full of swoon-worthy moments, pining like evergreen forests, feelings of desperation and helplessness, emotional outpourings, lamentations of “we can’t!”, and that whole vibe of “we rescued each other”, then you’re going to love this book.
There is young love followed by great loss, terrible grief, desperate dealings undertaken by loved ones, tentative and surprising friendships, frightening circumstances and courage under fire, and daring maneuvers for the sake of a chance at happiness.
Does it end happily? Yes. I was happy to have read it, because it made me smile and it was easy to love.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
I was invited to view this after I had already sworn I wasn’t going to accept any more January ARCs. Then I saw the blurb for this book and I just couI was invited to view this after I had already sworn I wasn’t going to accept any more January ARCs. Then I saw the blurb for this book and I just couldn’t pass it up because of my grandmother and great aunts. My grandmother was a regular Rosie the Riveter, helping to build war planes during WWII and my two great aunts ran a diner on a local airfield where they trained troops while their husbands were abroad fighting (my grandmother wasn’t married yet, not that she stayed married for long (I miss her so much)). I was extremely close to my grandma and I adored my great aunts. They were a hoot and a half. I just couldn’t turn this book down.
I’m so glad I didn’t, because this book is just like my grandma and great aunts: a hoot and a half, with quite a lot of story to tell. I laughed a lot and loved the story from beginning to end.
CJ Wray did an impeccable job crafting a story that straddles the past and the present (well, the past and 2022), telling the story of Josephine and Penny Williamson, two elderly women who served England in WWII. In the present timeline they’re traveling with their beloved and loyal great-nephew, Archie, to France so they can receive a medal for their service during the war. The past is the stories of their youth and their adventures in the service and out. These two old ladies had once had quite a number of adventures–good, bad, illegal, legal, sad, mad, amorous, and more.
All of the characters are colorful and well-written. The dialogue is absolutely delightful. Archie is a darling and his great aunts are the kind of great aunt I always wanted to be one day. The story reminds us of just what our elderly went through and how little of them are still left now. It’s a great story all around.
I was provided access to this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Historical Fiction/Military Fiction ...more
I’ve adored the previous two Saffron Everleigh books, so I was incredibly excited to read this one, especially with the title! Society! Secrets!
SadlyI’ve adored the previous two Saffron Everleigh books, so I was incredibly excited to read this one, especially with the title! Society! Secrets!
Sadly, this installment of Saffron Everleigh just didn’t gel for me and I ended up only being able to really engage with certain parts of the book and only liking certain aspects of the book instead of engaging with and liking the whole of it.
What did I like? The characters, mostly. How can you not love Kate Khavari’s colorful and unique cast of characters? She writes them all so well in all of their complexities, gives them all a full voice, and lets them all play their parts in the story. You can’t help but to become invested in them and delight in the delicious dialogue Khavari writes for them.
What did I have issues with? Really, it was the pacing, of all things. Society and Secrets not only takes time to get going, but it takes time to really engage fully, and even once it’s going fully the story is full of stops and stutters that just made this story feel really uneven.
Do I still recommend Society and Secrets despite the low rating? Yes I do, because I’m not going to give up on Saffron Everleigh due to one book that didn’t meet my standards. For all I know I’m just not having a good reading day. Since I know we’re getting at least one more book (if not more) out of Khavari about Miss Saffron, I recommend reading it because you need to read these books in order to understand the overall story arc.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review is rated three starts or less so it will not be appearing on my social media. Thank you.
File Under: Book Series/Historical Fiction/Historical Romance//Mystery...more
Note: You technically don’t have to read Olde Heuvelt’s book HEX in order to read Oracle, but I don’t think I would’ve understood the character of RobNote: You technically don’t have to read Olde Heuvelt’s book HEX in order to read Oracle, but I don’t think I would’ve understood the character of Robert Grim at all (nor some major parts of the book) without having read HEX first. So I’m going to advise you to read HEX first but I can’t make you do so. You do you.
Somehow, Robert Grim survived the events of the book HEX and has been living at the government’s leisure in a penthouse apartment in Atlantic City. Sure, he’s a miserable hermit of an alcoholic…but he’s alive.
Then one day the government comes knocking at his door, telling him his service is needed because he’s the only one they have with a particular skill set. He doesn’t really have a choice to say no, and so they’re off for the Netherlands because apparently, a “ghost ship” that looks like it should be at the bottom of the ocean is sitting in the middle of a tulip field and some people have gone in the hatch and, well, disappeared.
Robert Grim doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to enter a moral, ethical, and political quagmire that will bring back some of his oldest and darkest memories, but will also maybe give him some closure on why he’s still here when so many have gone.
Oracle isn’t as brilliant or compelling as HEX, but comparing these two books is a waste of time because we’re comparing two totally different kinds of horrors. Oracle is about more of an eldritch horror: This horror is older than old, incomprehensibly large, ineffable and implacable. It is life and death, baptism and damnation. The horrors in Oracle also cross over time. It’s a larger story with a larger cast of characters and more locales, so it takes more time to get the story going, to get the players moving, and to gain momentum. (HEX, if you’ll recall, was a faster vehicle because it took place almost entirely in one time period, everyone was contained to one village, and the evils were not as ineffable or incomprehensible).
The premise is compelling, the characters are interesting and sometimes downright loveable, the plot is interesting, and once the story really gets going I became very invested in seeing how it all would end. Once I realized just how evil the evil was getting I got even more excited. The climactic scenes toward the end of the book are extremely well-written and almost cinematic in scale. Loved it.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Book Series/Ghost Fiction/Historical Fiction/Paranormal Horror/Psychological Thriller/Speculative Fiction ...more
This was a lovely, if terribly sad, book. Even with how sad it is, I found it almost impossible to put down because the writing is just so elegant andThis was a lovely, if terribly sad, book. Even with how sad it is, I found it almost impossible to put down because the writing is just so elegant and the story is engrossing.
It’s interesting how sometimes the same old story can captivate you just being packaged in a slightly different way. Here, Morgan takes a basic plot we’ve definitely seen before: two women who are both running from their own kinds of ghosts and end up fighting them together in some sort of way, and keeps one woman’s ghosts mundane and turns the other woman’s ghosts supernatural. I also found myself surprised to be as invested in the story as I was, given I knew what was coming most of the time and knew most of what was going to happen in this book. Did I know it all? No. But I knew enough that there were few surprises. Usually, this would make me whine and moan, but I kept on being just as invested as I was from the beginning. I think that may have been because the writing was just that good and because I cared about the characters that much.
Two things that I loved so much about this book: One, the time period this book is set in. I love a good historical fantasy setting, and books set in the late 1960’s are some of my favorites. It was a time of so much social, political, and religious upheaval. It makes for excellent storytelling fodder. The second thing is the geographical setting of this book. The isolated, gothic-like setting of a very isolated island somewhere (I’m guessing from the text) in Puget Sound made not only for picturesque passages full of evocative imagery, but it also matched the mood of our protagonists and gave the story the supernatural feeling of liminal space that I found to be essential to the story being told.
There’s this ribbon woven through the text of this story about the spirit world and whether or not it’s tied to religion and faith or not, or whether it matters at all. Is it a gift or a curse? Burden or blessing? This question goes unanswered and I believe that’s the moral of the story. It’s all in what you carry with you.
I recommend this for fans of elegant prose, books about women fighting back without violence, books about unlikely and fast female friendships, and fans of 1960’s historical fantasy.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review was written without compensation.
This book may clock in at 577 pages, but it feels like it’s so much longer. I don’t mean that as an insult. I mean that as a compliment. This book is This book may clock in at 577 pages, but it feels like it’s so much longer. I don’t mean that as an insult. I mean that as a compliment. This book is not a trifling thing–it’s a deep, dense, carefully-constructed, intricately-woven, and ineffably magical text that takes little to no time at all to sink a hook in you before reeling you into a story of an alternative history where Korea has had a shadow government at work behind the scenes since the 19th century. All of its members work to keep Korea unified, but not all of them agree as to how to do so. Some members don’t even know they’re members. Some become members posthumously. Some are tapped to be members, unwittingly, since birth. Cogs become sprockets that move the chain along the track.
To tell you the truth, it’s difficult to describe this book, because it’s not a singular book. There’s essentially four “books” inside Same Bed Different Dreams.
1.The present-day story of our main protagonist, Soon Sheen, a sometimes-author who works for a tech conglomerate called GLOAT;
2. The five “Dreams” that make up the “book” within the book, called “Same Bed Different Dreams”;
3. The story of Parker Jotter, a Korean War veteran/POW and author of a series of sci-fi novels;
4. A handful of miscellaneous stories about historical events that are tied to fiction and fact by tenuous yet absolutely fascinating strings, like absurd Reddit conspiracy theories or internet train wrecks you just can’t look away from;
There are two phrases repeated throughout the text, like magic, ritual, or religion. One’s a riddle and one’s evocative of an axiom or a proverb.
“Did the straight line murder the circle?” (Or variations on this riddle.)
“Same bed, different dreams.”
The first? Well, that you’ll have to figure out yourself, just like I did.
The second? Korea is the same bed. Everyone: the Koreans (North, South, or otherwise), Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Americans? They all have different dreams for that same bed. None of them involve unifying Korea as Korea. They all involve molding Korea into some kind of vision of what they think Korea should be.
This entire book is about the shadow government known as the KPG and their intergenerational efforts to bring about the unification of Korea no matter what. Kick everyone out of the bed. Same bed, same dream. No matter how delusional the vision, no matter how tenuous the ties. No matter how far-fetched the plans or how desperate the hope.
The research that must have gone into this book has to have been insane and had to have taken ages. From obscure film references to real and imagined Korean authors to real-life cults like the Moonies to American games shows to slapstick silent films to the assassination of President McKinley to the fate of KAL flight 007. The list could go on and on. What matters is that not only is the Korean War extensively researched for the purposes of this book (since a great deal of this book centers around the division of Korea), but that every real-life event and/or person has been extensively researched for the matter of this book so that when Park inevitably twists the narrative to fit his alternative history spin on matters, everything that needs to connect does so seamlessly, as if it was always meant to be that way.
Ed Park is an extremely talented author, deftly writing four books in one, all with different tones, tenors, and modes. Soon Sheen’s story of working at GLOAT and reading “Same Bed Different Dreams” in pieces is written like a contemporary fiction novel, with Soon playing the part of a beleaguered father and corporate drone that has become enraptured with a secret book that fell into his hands seemingly by accident. “Same Bed Different Dreams” has a harsh tone and clipped economy of words that reminds one of both a confession and a manifesto. The story of Parker Jotter, Korean War vet, POW, and sci-fi author is written almost like a psychological fiction novel where the protagonist is a psychologically-compromised war vet whose thoughts and ideas might not all be his own. All the miscellaneous stories about historical events and people sprinkled throughout the book here and there vary in tone and complexity but never vary in interest.
This book is a wonder, and one of the best books I’ve read this year. It’s barely got a plot. It’s barely got a vibe. It’s barely got atmosphere. So what does it have? Beauty. The beauty of words. That’s all. It’s just a book that’s made up of beautiful words made into beautiful sentences made into beautiful pages made into a beautiful book.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review was written without any offer or acceptance of compensation.
My Darling, Dreadful Thing (hereafter referred to as MDDT in this review) is an absolutely lovely, dark, and haunting piece of gothic fiction with delMy Darling, Dreadful Thing (hereafter referred to as MDDT in this review) is an absolutely lovely, dark, and haunting piece of gothic fiction with delicious hidden pockets of horrid secrets tucked away like terrible treats right up until the end.
We’re in the Netherlands and it’s the 1950s (probably early 1950s). Our protagonist is Roos, who is being examined by a psychiatrist (sadly, a Freudian) to ascertain whether or not she’s mentally responsible for the death of her employer, a Mrs. Agnes Knoop.
Roos is of the opinion that she both is and isn’t. It’s a long story, and it starts when she’s only about five years old and her mother traps her for interminable hours underneath the floorboards of the house in order to better play a fake spirit medium.
MDDT is told in two timelines, with two formats: One is the main story, told from Roos’ first-person POV, and the other is in the format of interviews the psychiatrist has with Roos in order to evaluate her mental state. This format can be hard to nail, but I thought van Veen did an absolutely fantastic job showing both sides of the coin. The psychiatrist comes across as understandably and realistically skeptical, and even though he’s a Freudian thinker (yuck), he never comes across as vulgar. He also does also seem to be truly interested in understanding Roos instead of exploiting her.
The main story, Roos’ story, is the stuff gothic fiction dreams are made of. A cruel mother, a childhood full of suffering, and a rescue from that wretched existence by a rich and lovely widow who brings Roos to her estate ostensibly just because she they are so similar and she couldn’t stand to see Roos suffer in those conditions. However, in every gothic novel there must be a Manderley or Thornfield, and Rozentuin is the setting for where everything goes wrong in this book, because Rozentuin is where all those horrid secrets have been tucked away and left to fester. With Roos, Agnes, their respective spirit companions, and Agnes’ slowly-dying sister-in-law all inside this old house with all their combined secrets and personal ghosts it’s not too long until things start to go terribly wrong.
It was really a terrific book and satisfied every need I have when it comes to gothic fiction. I definitely recommend it.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
I’m not a big fan of WWII fiction, but I’m inexplicably drawn to WWI fiction. From 2022’s lit fic novel Two Storm Wood (which this novel reminds me ofI’m not a big fan of WWII fiction, but I’m inexplicably drawn to WWI fiction. From 2022’s lit fic novel Two Storm Wood (which this novel reminds me of in some ways) to Rebecca Ross’s Divine Rivals (which takes place in an alternative-Earth’s version of WWI), novels that capture the ghosts and horrors of those monstrous trenches and stories of those who love them are of interest to me. Add my interest to my curiosity in author Katherine Arden (I’d not read one of her novels before this even if they are on my wishlist) and I was so happy to get a chance to read The Warm Hands of Ghosts.
Arden’s writing is impeccable, from the words chosen to the sentence structure. The prose flows smooth as silk, the dialogue is perfectly suited to the characters and the time period, and the pacing is perfect. The story arc is sublime, with the alternating character-POV chapters lasting just long enough and hitting just when they need to in order to keep the suspense and emotion going. The world building is without fault, as its clear Arden didn’t skimp on the research one bit and put that knowledge to good use in conjunction with her ample writing talents. It’s an absolute masterpiece of a novel.
The themes of trauma, grief, love, fidelity, memory, “madness”, and darkness are all implemented so well here, woven with one another like a complex braid until it becomes one messy unit of no ends or beginnings. Such is the life of a common soldier or a nurse who comes to war. They don’t come to the battlefield until the people in charge have already decided it’s time to fight. The war started before they got there.
It’s a beautiful novel, even if it’s sad and brutal. I cried, but not as much as I thought I would. It was a fantastic read and I’d read it again.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Historical Fantasy/Historical Fiction/LGBTQ Romance/Military Fiction/Supernatural Fantasy ...more
I’ve never been so glad to be one of those people who really only likes apples in baked goods. Really.
I’ve also never had an opportunity to flex my gI’ve never been so glad to be one of those people who really only likes apples in baked goods. Really.
I’ve also never had an opportunity to flex my geography degree in regards to Quakers, Pennsylvania, and the apple (yes, geography has a ton to do with the apple–geography has a ton to do with everything) while reading a book so much before.
This book was fabulous. Absolutely, positively, fan-flipping fantastic. Did I have moments when I thought the characters were dumb? Yes. Did I find some parts predictable? Sure. Do I care? Not one bit. This is horror on some kind of quasi-epic scale, because even though the meat of this book doesn’t take place over longer than maybe a traditional school year, the story itself is epic in scale, owing to how far back in time it truly stretches and how pervasive the horror truly is.
If you’re looking for a book that feels like autumn, this book fits the bill: Trees, rushing river, crisp air, leaves falling and gathering on the ground waiting to be blown away into large piles, apples ripe and round on their branches, flies glutting themselves on the last of the rotting summer berries, that feeling of susurration and suspension when the earth is settling down before it goes dormant for winter.
Writing about apples somehow always becomes a partially sensual and sinful endeavor. Wendig writes evocatively when people take bites out of the apples, making sure we know exactly how the juice gushes out, how it runs down their chins, their arms, sometimes further down. How it glistens and coats their skin. He writes about how exactly they take their bite, sometimes revealing their sin: an angry bite, a greedy bite, a lusty bite, etcetera. Not only are these apples cursed with the gift of a certain type of knowledge, but they are sin incarnate, revealing the hidden monsters inside all those who partake.
The characters are so explosively unique and wonderful on both sides of the story. It’s definitely never a story where you want to root for the bad guy or anything, but the antagonists in this book are more than what they seem, and the evil stretches.
I loved the ongoing themes of sin, white supremacy, misogyny, right-wing conservatism, conservation, colonialism, and fallen idols. It’s just a fantastic book and I can’t say anymore or I’ll start spoiling things. I just recommend you give it a try!
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
As with The Red Palace, June Hur has set out once again to look back into history, confront it, and turn it into impeccably-researched historical fictAs with The Red Palace, June Hur has set out once again to look back into history, confront it, and turn it into impeccably-researched historical fiction that not only entertains but also makes the lesson accessible for those who might otherwise never have learned of it.
I don’t care whether or not historical fiction is labeled as YA or not: What I care about the most when it comes to historical fiction of any kind is the dedication to the source material. I want my historical fiction to be as well-researched as possible, from top to bottom. In genre fiction, there are worlds to build. In historical fiction, adherence to history is the worldbuilding. While there are certain elements that can be bent, like timeline compressions and character amalgamations, anachronisms stick out just as bad as a poorly-formed magic system in any fantasy novel. June Hur does some of the best research I’ve ever seen when it comes to writing her novels. The result of this thorough and time-consuming research is impeccable worldbuilding with as few shortcuts taken as possible to create an entertaining, romantic, mysterious, suspenseful, and intriguing novel that should appeal to all ages and not just the YA set.
A Crane Among Wolves is as much a tale of survivor’s guilt and vengeance as it is about rebellion. Along the way it also becomes a story of found family, grief, privilege, and persistence. There’s treachery, betrayal, violence, friendship, risk, espionage, and falling in love at the worst possible time. Or is the worst possible time also maybe the best? Either way, it all comes together beautifully in the end.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein is a dual timeline reimagining of Mary Shelley’s life before she completed her novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern PMary and the Birth of Frankenstein is a dual timeline reimagining of Mary Shelley’s life before she completed her novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. In one timeline, we are with Mary in Dundee, Scotland, in 1812 as she fostered long-term with the radical Baxter family. In the other, we are with Mary in 1816, “the year without a summer”, on Lake Geneva in Switzerland with her husband Percy, their son William, and her stepsister, Claire. They’re splitting their time between their smaller cottage where they stay with William and his nanny and Villa Diodati, where Lord Byron and John Polidori are staying.
I absolutely loved this book. Adored it, even. Percy Bysshe Shelley is one of my favorite poets, and the mythology of the events surrounding what happened during the “year without a summer” at Villa Diodati is a fascinating subject to me. Mention Villa Diodati within my hearing range and I immediately will swivel my head in fascination. Not to mention the fact Mary Shelley is one of my heroes.
This book was originally written in Dutch, but as far as I can tell, the translation was exceptional. The prose was smooth as silk and never felt awkward to read. I don’t know if this is what translators want to hear, but it didn’t feel like a translation–it felt natural.
The book itself does take some liberties with history when it comes to Mary’s time with the Baxters, but since the book’s most fanciful, whimsical, and even mystical moments take place during this timeline it would make sense for Eekhout to shuffle some things around to make room for her narrative. Mary is only 14 when she arrives in Dundee, happy to be away from crowded London, her indifferent father, the stepmother she doesn’t get along with, and her overdramatic stepsister. She is immediately transfixed by Isabella Baxter, who is a year older than her, and they form an incredibly close bond. It’s here that Mary hears the most stories and begins telling her own. It’s here that Mary discovers the first villain in her life that takes something from her.
No one knows quite for sure what all happened in 1816 at Villa Diodati. We know this is where Claire Claremont fell pregnant with the child that Lord Byron would own up to fathering. This is where Mary Shelley started to pen her infamous novel. Some say this is where Percy Bysshe Shelley became convinced he saw his doppelganger one night. In Eekout’s book, however, this is the place where Mary Shelley remembers the villain she met in Dundee and the stories she heard there. This is where her anger at men and marriage grows. This is where her grief simmers and her depression deepens. This is where she takes up the effort to write a ghost story and decides to write about a monster, instead.
I will tell you that this book is all vibes, imagery, and emotion. While Eekhout is careful not to neglect her supporting characters, you can be sure the focus of her energy is definitely on the complexity that is Mary. You can tell she’s studied Mary Shelley extensively and has her vision of Mary down to a science because her characterization is utterly consistent.
The worldbuilding is lush and atmospheric and the prose is languid, even dreamy in places. It’s a well-crafted and beautiful novel and a lovely fall read.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
The Rumor Game is an interesting historical thriller set in Boston during WWII, featuring a female reporter who works to stoReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
The Rumor Game is an interesting historical thriller set in Boston during WWII, featuring a female reporter who works to stop the spread of disinformation with a column in her local paper and male FBI agent who’s assignment is supposed to be preventing sabotage of industries vital to the war effort in and around Boston (the town being a vital port city). On the surface, the only thing the two seem to have in common is a hatred of Nazis. War makes for strange bedfellows, though, and soon it proves that these two have a lot of connections, both personally and professionally.
The Rumor Game has a great story, but my great issue is that it doesn’t ever seem to come together cohesively. It’s all over the place, narratively. There are a lot of threads to pull on, and not all of them are pulled on equally. Some are left dangling for too long and when Mullen comes back to them it’s been so long that it feels almost confusing. Some threads are resolved a little too neatly, or not in a satisfactory manner for the amount of outrage they elicited for the characters in the story (who deserved better). At times it also felt like Mullen may have been having his own characters act stupider than they were being otherwise written, because their ignorance regarding certain matters beggared belief.
It’s a cool story with great atmosphere but there’s a lot missing from it. If it had a tighter plot I would’ve loved it a lot more.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
When this widget crossed my email I decided to pick it up because I’m always intrigued by the lesser-known female Egyptian rReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
When this widget crossed my email I decided to pick it up because I’m always intrigued by the lesser-known female Egyptian royals and I rarely get a chance to read these ancient historical fiction novels (think like Madeleine Miller’s books). The female Egyptian queens and pharaohs are always intriguing figures, but the daughter of Hapshetsut, whom little is known about? That had the potential to be a great story.
It’s an interesting story, but the execution was average.
Evans, an expert in ancient Egyptian history, clearly knows what she's doing when it comes to world building and imagery. I had no trouble imagining the Egypt of Neferura’s time, from the land to the people. Likewise, her characters were interesting, if a little rote.
The issue I had is that the storytelling was lacking in any kind of flair or color. While readable, it wasn’t special. It was okay for one read, but I wouldn’t read it again. I’d consider it if you’re really digging some ancient Egypt vibes, but not if you’re looking for a dynamic story.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
This book is simultaneously one of the most adorable books I’ve ever read and one of the saddest. It’s precocious and it’s discomforting. It made me cThis book is simultaneously one of the most adorable books I’ve ever read and one of the saddest. It’s precocious and it’s discomforting. It made me cry several times.
The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley is a book about family, for good or for ill. Family isn’t always pretty and it isn’t always kind. They make mistakes and they are sometimes disagreeable indeed. For all their trespasses though, they are family, and sometimes family is worth fighting for. Sometimes they’re worth crossing oceans for.
I have a huge spot for magical realism. It’s probably my favorite genre to read. This book mixes magical realism with historical fiction set in the latter half of the 18th century, as America is forming and the Ottoman Empire is ruling Constantinople. In London, Abel Cloudesley is a renowned clock and automata maker. His son, Zachary, is a genius with an unquenchable appetite for knowledge. He also seems to have inherited his mother’s gift of second sight, which Abel tries to wave away due to Zachary’s almost preternatural intellectual abilities because he doesn’t want his son to be seen as any more different than he already is. Just as Zachary is suffused with love for his father and desperately clamors for his attention, Abel only wants Zachary to be safe and he’s steeped in guilt that he may not have been the best father and doesn’t think he can give Zachary everything he needs. So he sends Zachary to live with his Great Aunt in the country on her estate where she can use her resources to indulge and educate Zachary’s mind away from the filth and dangers of London.
From this point, this book explores themes on gender identity, found family, education, religion, gender equality, politics, war, conservation, LGBTQ issues, adolescent rebellion, and socioeconomics. Our characters age and travel. Some get sick and some inevitably die (this is before germ theory, people).
Every character in this book learns more than one lesson, and most of them are hard ones. There is love in these pages, though, and that makes it worth the read. If there were not love this book would be too sad. It’s a great read if you like books about automata and historical fiction set during the Ottoman Empire.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review was written without compensation. Thank you.
Memory loss is an incredibly traumatic event. Trust me, I know. In the summer of 2017 I had a seizure, and from that point until the fall of 2018 I haMemory loss is an incredibly traumatic event. Trust me, I know. In the summer of 2017 I had a seizure, and from that point until the fall of 2018 I have maybe one or two memories because I was diagnosed as having a type of epilepsy caused by traumatic brain injury. We don’t even know what the traumatic brain injury was because I can’t remember. I have a specific type of PTSD that’s tied directly to the trauma of having over a year of time lost. To this day, my memory is splotchy at best.
So I can deeply identify with Kat, the twin who loses her memory in a car accident at the beginning of this book. When you lose your memory, you become completely dependent on those around you to fill in the blanks. Then you have to hope that those around you are honest and ethical enough to tell you the objective truth and not mislead you.
Can you imagine that level of trust? (Yeah, I have a lot of trust issues).
Luckily, Kat knows one solid thing once she wakes up: her mirror twin, Jude. Jude is where she ends and begins, like a Mobius strip. They twist and flow into one another. They may be separate beings, but they share that mystical twin link, and Jude is determined to care for Kat and help her slowly but surely remember all she has lost.
The thing is, Kat lives up to her name, for she is curious and things just don’t quite add up.
The things I liked the most about this book were the prose and the psychological terrors that lie behind trusting someone else to fill in your memories. It doesn’t matter how good someone’s intentions are–memories intrinsically belong to the individual, and unless you spend 24/7/365.25 with a person you can’t begin to provide them with anything close to a reliable recitation. Even if you try, you should be truthful, even if the truth is painful.
The prose is compelling and propulsive, engaging in its vigor and imagery. If this wasn’t so clearly a thriller novel I would classify it as literary fiction. Kahler has a lovely way with words, painting vivid pictures and thrilling scenes throughout the book.
The book is truly great, but it’s a little too long, in my opinion. I feel like it could have been trimmed in a few places in each act and made for a much tighter novel, but I don’t truly believe the story suffers overmuch for it. I definitely recommend it.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
I was surprised and delighted by the first book in this series, last year’s A Botanist’s Guide to Parties and Poisons. I really didn’t expect to love I was surprised and delighted by the first book in this series, last year’s A Botanist’s Guide to Parties and Poisons. I really didn’t expect to love Saffron Everleigh and this type of cozy mystery as much as I ended up doing and I was so happy to get a chance to read this second installment.
I’m in no way surprised that I was just as delighted by this book as I was the first, even with all the growing pains this book had to overcome being the sophomore novel in the series and with the presence of Saffron’s love interest from the first book, Alexander, away on an expedition in the Amazon during the vast majority of this book. In his place is the insufferably flirtatious, persistent, and impetuous Dr. Michael Lee, who has been paired with Saffron to complete a research study and also ends up assisting her with trying to help the police solve the central mystery in this book: the murders of three women, each done in a different manner, but each preceded with the delivery or drop-off of a bouquet filled with poisonous, toxic, and/or dangerous flowers. In an inspired move (which I honestly would’ve thought of myself, even in this day and age because I’m a fan of messages within messages), Saffron decides to decode the underlying meaning of each bouquet using the Victorian art of floriography, in which people conveyed messages not polite to speak aloud using different flowers bundled into bouquets, sachets, or boutonnieres. Not only are the physical parts of the bouquets poisonous, but the messages are just as dark and toxic. Intrigued by the mystery of it all and needing a distraction from all the drama going on at the university in the wake of the scandal that made up the story from the first book in the series, Saffron goes to the police and offers her services as a consultant on the case. Surprisingly, they take her up on the offer, since the bouquets had totally stymied them.
I both love and empathize with Saffron. She’s full of genius, as many women who tried to make it in the academic world post-WWI were, but with it being such a boy’s club she has to work twice as hard for half as much while dealing with racism, sexual harassment, outright sexual perusal, verbal accusations of sleeping with everyone from the new department chair to her research partner, and accusations of her family money buying her admittance to the university. Academia is a world of publish or perish: Always had been and always will be. Saffron works constantly and diligently to try and pursue her Master’s degree, but obstacles are thrown in her way constantly. It’s no wonder she feels more freedom, respect, and fulfillment using her botanical knowledge helping the police solve crimes.
Saffron’s best friend, Eliza, continues to be an absolute hoot of a supporting character, providing Saffron with a foil to her straight man when the scenes are just the two of them. Eliza is somehow a best friend, a sister, a therapist, a partner-in-crime, and a comic foil all in one. She’s whatever Saffron needs her to be, like only the best foils can be. Dr. Mike Lee may be a good man at heart, but he’s short-sighted in more ways than one and too impulsive by half. I hope to see more of him after this book, but as of the end of this book he’s too impulsive by far to be much good for Saffron.
The Saffron Everleigh books are my idea of the perfect type of cozy mystery: the pacing is steady but not too quick, the story is interesting and has plenty of twists and turns, there’s a varied cast of characters that keep you guessing at who might be involved in the central mystery, there’s a light sprinkle of romance, there’s an air of society scandal, and the last turn is a genuine surprise. Most of all, this being a series, it leaves off on a small outcropping leading to the next installment. Not quite a cliffhanger, but not a story resolved by far.
I’m going to tell you to read this book as well as the first book in the series. They’re both a great read for late summer evenings.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Book Series/Cozy Mystery/Historical Fiction/Historical Mystery/Historical Romance/Mystery ...more
Slap a ballerina on the cover and I’m bound to want to read it. Sometimes it’s a blessing. Sometimes it’s a curse. This time, it was a blessing becausSlap a ballerina on the cover and I’m bound to want to read it. Sometimes it’s a blessing. Sometimes it’s a curse. This time, it was a blessing because I loved this book!
The Dance of the Dolls is a slow-burn psychological thriller that’s lovingly crafted by Lucy Ashe, who used to be a ballerina with the Royal Ballet. As such, she was not only more than capable of getting into the heads of Clara and Olivia, our two female protagonists (both ballerinas) but was also in possession of a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the inner workings of everything from how pointe shoes are made to what muscles are being used during each position a ballerina makes or what pose she holds. Her deep love and respect for ballet as an art form shows in the extensive research she did to set The Dance of the Dolls in a pivotal time for ballet in Western Europe, going so far as to insert as many real life heroes and heroines from the ballet world into the book almost seamlessly around the events of the book. If one didn’t know these people were real (as a ballet fan, I definitely recognized a great deal of the names), they’d just assume they were characters Ashe made up with a click-clack of her keyboard.
The worldbuilding of early 1930’s London is done impeccably, from the fashions of the time to the political upheaval happening all over. It was a dark time and it was about to get darker, and the British people invested their time and money in the arts just as Americans did, needing pretty diversions from their daily toils and troubles.
This is a psychological thriller, but it builds slowly. The ballet Coppelia, about a man falling in love with a perfect doll, is not only the name of the ballet Olivia and Clara are dancing in, but it’s also a metaphor for the two of them in different ways. Olivia is a perfect ballerina, the type to go all the way in the world of ballet and become a prima ballerina. As such, she captures the eye of the ballet’s pointe shoe maker and becomes his muse for designing costumes and tutus as he watches her from afar, fearing her perfection is not for him. Clara is wilder and more free, a stunning dancer but not as perfect as her twin. Olivia belongs to the ballet, and Clara doesn’t want to belong to anyone. But in the 1930s is it too much to ask for a woman to retain her freedom? Can she just be who she is and not belong to anyone but herself?
I’m not usually one for slow-building anything in books, but there was so much else going on in this book that I wasn’t bored for one second. It was entertaining, page-turning, interesting, informing, and engrossing. I highly recommend it.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, ideas, and views expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Oh, Andrew Joseph White, if you keep writing books as good as this one and your debut I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself.
I fell in love wiOh, Andrew Joseph White, if you keep writing books as good as this one and your debut I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself.
I fell in love with White’s 2022 release, Hell Followed With Us, from the moment I first heard of it. It was like nothing I’d ever heard of before and I was ready to board the ship. I enjoyed the ride immensely. Then, when White announced his second novel, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, I could’ve swooned. Everything about this book made me swoon and behave like Veruca Salt, shouting, “Don’t care how, I want it now!”
Obviously, this is one of my most-anticipated releases this year, and holy hot damn it didn’t disappoint. If I could give this book more than five stars I totally would. This book hits really close to home for me in more than one way. My ex-spouse is both trans and autistic, my older child is gender fluid and autistic, and my younger child is autistic enough that he’s been declared permanently disabled. I myself am bisexual and mildly autistic, besides also being bipolar and having a host of other psychological issues. In the 1880’s (the time period this book takes place in) I’d likely have been placed in an asylum when I was in my early teens and left there to rot. For that matter, any of my family members might have met that unfortunate fate, if not worse.
AJW deserves not only all the accolades but also all the admiration for writing a book with a main protagonist that’s both trans and autistic. It couldn’t have been easy to write, and it couldn’t have been easy to convince agents and editors to publish it. But I’m so ecstatic that this book got written and made it onto book shelves because it’s brilliant and it’s beautiful in its own savage way.
When writing historical fantasy, you need to be just as careful with the “historical” portion of the book as you would be when writing historical fiction so as to not only keep your world building framework steady and make sure your atmosphere is correct, but also to avoid anachronisms where you can. AJW acknowledges in the back of the book that the queer historian he consulted to help him with the research for this book pointed out that such things as the constant chaperoning of unmarried females in Victorian times were definite obstacles to fiction. Therein lies the joys of historical fantasy, where all of a sudden the fantastical parts of the plot can create opportunities to circumvent what would otherwise be seen as an anachronism.
The world AJW created in this book is cold, cruel, grey, dreary, hateful, and wretched. There is no beauty to it except for the ties between the women at Braxton’s, which start out as tenuous and loose as a hasty basting stitch when Silas arrives but steadily tighten and grow stronger like corset laces as the book goes on and the abuses they endure grow with every day that passes.
There is precious little sweetness in this book, but when it is there it’s worth slowing down for, just to sink into a little and revel in it. It’s intimate and soft and a little unraveling. It’s an oasis, a pit stop in the midst of desperate chaos as Silas and the girls try to figure out where the spirits are and how they can escape a place that is sure to only serve up their deaths in the near future.
The climax of this book is manic, horrific, and grotesque. No one escapes without trauma. And even as the book ends, the trauma lingers and the business isn’t quite done.
I can’t recommend this book enough. To all ages. To all readers.
(AJW does include a list of possible CW/TWs inside the book for those who need them.)
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. Any thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Body Horror/Ghost Story/Historical Fantasy/Historical Fiction/Horror/LGBTQ Fiction/LGBTQ Romance/Occult Horror/Own Voices/Paranormal Fantasy/Paranormal Horror/Secret Society ...more
I was loving this book so much up until we got to the third act. Then, by the time we got to the end, I wanted to throw my Kindle across the room. I fI was loving this book so much up until we got to the third act. Then, by the time we got to the end, I wanted to throw my Kindle across the room. I felt I had invested so much time and patience in this book that had gone from eerie, macabre, dark, and fascinating to scrabbling and messy and then it just slammed headlong into, “What the heck was that?”, and a general feeling that I had just wasted a great many hours of my time.
I love a good gothic horror mystery. I love good folk horror, and Jewish folklore is filled with some good material. I loved the premise of this book, and E. Saxey started this book out well! I was a happy little mouse, ensconced with Judith (our protagonist) as she stays alone (without a chaperone!) to grieve the loss of her sister’s fiance alone while her sister, mother, and her fiance’s brother are touring Italy together (they are, of course, under the assumption she has a chaperone, which is a con she set up herself so she could have the house and its quiet to herself). Sam, her sister’s fiance, perished roughly a year ago in an accident at a village festival when he fell and drowned in a river, though his body was never recovered.
Judith and her sister, Ruth, are big on rituals and harmless, made-up magic. Their father raised them on the folktales and mythology of England and fairy tales of the west when they first came to London. While their mother is selfish and cared not for much beyond wealth and their large house, their father spoiled them with pre-Raphaelite paintings, dresses straight out of middle ages so they could swan about like princesses, and a grand garden with a lake suited for two girls who wanted nothing more than to read about Lancelot and Guinevere or the Lady of Shalott. They were good Jewish girls, of course, until after their father died and they started keeping company with their new neighbors, Sam and Toby, and their mother never bothered to ensure her daughters’ reputations were kept secure. Ruth saw Sam as a sign that her prince had finally come. If only that had been true.
The first two acts of the book are filled with rituals, dread, fear, mystery, doubt, isolation, darkness, cold, feelings of wrong, rot, and decay. The feelings of being pushed, invaded, taken advantage of; but also the feelings of wanting to help but because you’re selfish, because you want, because you’re in the position to take.
Then, in the third act, it just starts to fall apart. Judith’s excuses for her actions fall thin and I lost my patience with her as a reader. The mystery has essentially been solved and yet she keeps hesitating to do the right thing. It feels like the book should be over and what hasn’t been resolved I had already guessed. The ending just unravels like a poorly-woven sweater, without any control to it. Then, the book just ends. No resolution. No denouement. It was like walking into a brick wall. I don’t know why E. Saxey chose that ending, but in my opinion it wasn't a fit ending for the book and it was a very poor choice. This review would’ve easily been a four star review without that ending.
I hope you like it better than I did.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Per personal policy this review will not appear on any social media or bookseller websites due to receiving a three star or lower rating. ...more
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