Pot Shot by Laura Piper Lee
For a book I ended up loving, I struggled at a couple of points early in the book. First of all, there is a medical emergency in the first chapter that brings Nomi and Julian back together. That had me putting the book down for a week. The other challenge I had was Julian for the first quarter or so … [Read more]
Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly
What an underhyped gem this is. It's funny, with quirky characters and an emotional core. Set in New Zealand, the book alternates the POVs of the titular siblings, who are biracial, gay, and living together as roommates. It's a slice of life novel with a large focus on the main characters' romantic … [Read more]
The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
This is quite a short novella and therefore there's quite a bit of rushing to get to the plot that there is. But if the worst that I have to complain about is some deus ex machina nuns, I think we're overall pretty fine. Did not realize that there was more fiction in this vein by Clark, I've read … [Read more]
The Murder at World's End by Ross Montgomery
A quick read but at the end of the day never quite felt the sense of "the game is afoot." Montgomery does a fantastic job of fleshing out a very large cast of characters-- I was a bit worried at the outset when they were all being described without names, but as soon as our narrator (Stephen) learns … [Read more]
The Wager; A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
Format in which I consumed this book: audiobook Did I like it/love it/hate it? Liked it What's it about? In the 1740s, a British ship sets sail to try to capture a Spanish galleon filled with treasure. They fail, and become shipwrecked on an island near Argentina and Chile. In the months that … [Read more]
The Magician's Daughter by H. G. Parry
Biddy lives on a small, magically isolated island off the coast of Ireland with her guardian/foster father, Rowan, and his familiar, the rabbit Hutchincroft. No one who doesn't know that it's there can find it. While Biddy has no magic of her own, she has grown up with it all around her. Yet magic … [Read more]
