These reviews, which were promoted in CBR social media, on our homepage, and in Pajiba Love, appear below by review publication date, not by date featured.
The Poet Empress by Shen Tao
Sending up the Bat Signal on this book, my first use of it this year. (FYI the last time I used it was with The Raven Scholar, my best book of 2025, so you know it’s serious.) I wouldn’t recommend this book as widely or as often as I have The Raven Scholar, but for a certain type of reader, this thing will hit hard. (As it hit me. Last night, crying softly on my couch as I opined to myself, IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL.) First […]
The Black God's Drums by P. Djeli Clark
I’m starting to really love P. Djèlí Clark’s writing. This is the second book I’ve read by him, and I liked it even more than Ring Shout, which is surprising because it’s rare for me to give a novella more than 4 stars (4.25 for this one). Often I find that characters don’t end up getting fleshed out enough for me, and while I would have loved more of The Black God’s Drums, Clark did a remarkable job considering the limited space he was working with. […]
Amongst Women by John McGahern
A couple of months ago, I came across a Youtube short from Booktuber, Jack Edwards, asking Cillian Murphy and Max Porter for their book recommendations (the short has since gone viral!). That short was packed with some great suggestions (like Claire Keegan) and I’ve really come to enjoy Edwards’ coverage of famous people’s reading habits (a niche I didn’t know I needed)! Murphy recommended John McGahern and featured on the short was Amongst Women. I’d been looking for a short-ish read to start 2026 off […]
The Beauty of the End by Lauren Stienstra
I’m starting out with a bang this year by doing my first review in January! I’m all over the place with CBR’s. Last year I did 1 review for 2 books and I did it on NEW YEAR’S EVE! Yes, the day reviews were due and CBR 17 was closing. To cut myself some slack 2025 was a wee bit of a dumpster fire for my family. We had divorce, cancer, family moving in, too many cats, un-divorce… (everyone is fine now!) The year before […]
Woe: A Housecat's Story of Despair by Lucy Knisley
I feel as though my reading year is starting off very slowly. I have a couple books on hand from the library that I’m having trouble sinking into and should probably return and try again later, I have been waiting for other things to come off holds, and had to wait for a book I purchased to be replaced since pages were falling out of the binding. Plus, my attention span hasn’t really been great, either. So, I decided to lean a bit into some of the short works I had selected for some […]
Hallie’s Rules for a Recovering Romantic by Jessica Lewis
I’ve loved Jessica Lewis’s books since her debut, Bad Witch Burning, and each new release just further cements how much I love her books and stories. After Nav’s book last year, I knew I needed to and could not wait to get my hands on Hallie’s book, and this was so good!! Hallie feels like she’s a failure and not good enough, especially after a few of her exes have treated her poorly or denigrated her, plus the pressure from her parents to be The […]
