Polari Book Prize Canceled, Fewer Readers Reading for Fun, Winn-Dixie Turns 25, Reader vs Book Consumer, Hedda Gabler Gets a New Spin, Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Rewind it Back by Liz Tomforde, The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai, and Tea You At The Altar by Rebecca Thorne

Finally, the last week of August! Just in time for me to slip in another cool post of hot reviews of four books I've read in the past week. Other than avoiding all contact with the glowing orb in the sky, there's not much new going on here, though it has been the hottest summer on record. Thank heaven for AC.

 

I've been reading a lot lately about authors and readers protesting book bans and authors who have been accused of sexual harassment and rape (like Neil Gaiman) or who are prejudiced against those in the LGBTQ community or POC. I'm glad that so many authors and organizers are putting their feet down against anti-trans bigotry.

 

Polari Book Prize Canceled After Authors Withdraw in Protest

Organizers of the Polari Prize, which confers the only book awards honoring LGBTQ+ authors in the UK, have canceled this year’s prizes after more than a dozen nominees and two judges withdrew to protest the inclusion of John Boyne. Boyne, who has publicly expressed anti-trans ideas and come out in support of J.K. Rowling’s virulent transphobia, has only doubled down in response . The Polari will be back in 2026, and organizers have committed to "increase the representation of trans and gender non-conforming judges on the panels." Strategic resistance and thoughtful response are exactly what you want in a situation like this, and I hope to see Polari follow through with greater care and consideration for their community.

 

This is weird because I've been reading for fun and for school since I was 5 years old (I learned to read when I was 4). They shouldn't have left this data to Florida college researchers, however, as when I lived in Florida, most people came there for retirement or Spring Break parties or to lay on the beach for days and let themselves get sunburned while drinking alcohol in quantity. It wasn't really a place that advertised itself as a readers haven. There were, while I lived there, perishingly few authors from the area willing to talk about or sign their work. Now if they'd used research from my home state, Iowa, or where I currently live in Washington state, I'm certain that they would have found many more authors and readers to report on their reading habits.

 

Fewer Americans Are Reading for Fun

Drawing on data from the American Time Use Survey, researchers at University College London and the University of Florida have found that the number of Americans who reported reading for pleasure dropped from a high of 28% in 2004 to 16% in 2023. Put another way: over a period of twenty years, the number of Americans who read for fun dropped by forty percent, a decrease the researchers call "surprising" even though pleasure reading has been declining steadily since the 1940s. While the researchers don’t offer an explanation for the decline, we can do some educated guessing. 2004, the peak year of this study, was the last year before Facebook went wide on college campuses. It was followed by YouTube in 2005, Twitter in 2006, the iPhone in 2007. You know the rest of this song.

I remember reading this book to my son, who is 25, back when he was a little guy. I also read him The Tale of Despereau by the same author, and he LOVED it. I can hardly believe her Winn-Dixie novel is already 25, though I can also hardly believe my little boy is a man and now listens to audiobooks because he loves the sound of someone reading a story to him, thanks to me.

 

Image of the Day: Because of Winn-Dixie Turns 25

On August 19, Kate DiCamillo kicked off the 25th anniversary celebration

of her beloved novel Because of Winn-Dixie with a sold-out film

screening and signing for several hundred fans. The event took place at

Minneapolis's Riverview Theatre--the same site as the Twin Cities film

premiere two decades ago--and was hosted by Red Balloon Bookshop and Candlewick Press, which is releasing a collector's edition on September 30.

I would think I'm both a reader and consumer of books, but then I am subscribed to several book newsletters that often contain reviews and recommendations, and I also watch videos on Facebook from readers that recommend their latest books. I also listen to some word of mouth, but since I don't get out much, I have to rely mostly on the email newsletters and videos. I also browse when I'm at a bookstore and make impulse buys based on how interesting the blurbs are and how beautifully the book is printed with colored edges and cover illustrations.

 

Are You a Reader or a Book Consumer?

This piece from Kathleen Schmidt about literary criticism vs book consumerism really hits on some things I’m thinking about lately. Schmidt, a longtime publicist, focuses her critique on what she sees as publishers’ tendency to overvalue book reviews and publish too many books that won’t actually sell. It’s a thoughtful and interesting take, and I’d like to expand on it.

Schmidt draws her distinction based on the information people use to determine what to read: there are people who care about literary criticism, and then there are book consumers, who choose their books based on on social media, word-of-mouth, and, well, everything that isn’t a traditional book review. That distinction makes sense for someone advising authors and publishers on where to concentrate publicity. But for reading culture more broadly, I think a more useful question is what readers are actually looking for when they choose a book.

If BookTok trends are any indication, readers who gravitate to literary criticism and those who turn to social may be seeking fundamentally different experiences. Literary criticism prioritizes the work ("Is this good art?"), whereas social media and recommendation-based algorithms prioritize the consumer’s experience ("Will I enjoy this?"). Both are valid questions, and I would hazard that most readers employ both in their reading lives. Good art can also be pleasurable. A fun book can also have literary merit. That’s the dream! Book reviews were never a mass draw; it’s just harder to ignore that fact now that we have addictive, dopamine-fueled apps as a comparison.

As a reader who cares about books as art and wants to see literary gems continue to sit on shelves alongside the pop culture phenomena that underwrite their existence, I don’t share Schmidt’s suggestion that publishers should focus less on writers “who see literary criticism as the ultimate authority.” Consumer validation and critical validation aren’t mutually exclusive. A healthy book culture needs both.

From where I sit, it’s not the books that need to change, but the mindset. Criticism and consumerism can be complementary ways of engaging with literature. If readers and publishers can sustain space for both, our literary landscape will be all the richer for it.

 

Having been a theater major, I can honestly say that I often found Ibsen's plays rather dense and dull. Still, I appreciate that there was always significant subtext, and in this case, it will be fascinating when the updated play is filmed and shows on Amazon Prime in late October.  

Hedda Gabler Gets a Heady New Spin

Bored, rich women with time on their hands have always been bad news. It was true in 1890 when Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler first hit the stage, and it remains true in director Nia DaCosta’s new adaptation starring Tessa Thompson . Ibsen’s story about a wealthy woman who feels trapped in her marriage and ambivalent (at best) about the prospect of motherhood channels her restlessness into creating chaos in the lives of another couple. DaCosta and Thompson’s update brings Hedda’s repressed desires to the forefront by way of a lesbian love triangle, and friends, it’s going to be fun when this one hits Amazon Prime on October 29.

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a GMA Book Club Pick and the 9th wrok out by the tremendously popular author of Daisy Jones and the Six (which I read and enjoyed with my library book group last year). It's hard to put this book in a genre, but I would call it science fiction/romance myself, with a historical bent for NASA history. Here's the blurb: “NASA? Space missions? The ’80s? This is a collection of all the things I love.”—Andy Weir, author of Project Hail Mary and The Martian (editor's note, both GREAT reads, IMO).

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love—this time among the stars.

 

First of all, TJR's prose is exemplary, bright and shining as the stars she so obviously loves. Her plots are full of adventure and moments of stunning beauty and they never flag or fall prey to infodumps, though she is writing about many technical subjects in this book. Like Andy Weir, she manages to make science and math jargon accessible to the general reading public, which is quite a feat these days. And the dual love stories, that of an aunt to a cherished and neglected niece (her mother is a narcissist and a genuinely horrible parent) and partner/lover to another astronaut, Vanessa, are heartbreakingly gorgeous. I laughed, I cried, and I let myself fall in love with these honorable and smart women. Why authors like this don't write huge tomes, like most every other fantasy, romantasy and fiction author out there is beyond me...though perhaps, like classic authors of the 19th and 20th centuries, they feel obliged to write concisely and beautifully, and allow good editors to keep their works clean and crisp and smart (listen up Brandon Sanderson! Take a page from authors like this and cut down on your bloated paragraphs). At any rate, I loved this book, and was sorry to see it end....what a masterpiece. I'd give it an A, and recommend it to anyone who has dreamed of space flight, like nearly every kid who grew up in the 1960s-70s and watched the moon landing.

 

Rewind it Back by Liz Tomforde is a classic romance novel that is full of nostalgia, first loves and family drama. Its about medium on the "spice" scale, though there's plenty of love scenes to satisfy the smut lovers out there. Here's the blurb: 

Hallie
When I was eleven, my family moved next door to his.
When I was thirteen, he was my first crush.
When I was sixteen, we fell for each other.
And when I was nineteen, we broke each other’s hearts.

Six years later, I’ve landed an internship with a big-name interior designer in a new city. Unfortunately, that city just so happens to be the one he plays hockey for.

I thought Chicago was big enough to avoid him, until I get the surprise of a lifetime and unknowingly move in right next door. And even worse? The renovation project I’m assigned to in hopes of turning that internship into my full-time dream job.

It’s his house.
But how am I supposed to update his bachelor pad into a family home when we can’t even stand to be in the same room?
I may have loved Rio DeLuca once, but I’m not that same girl anymore.

Rio
I never thought I’d be the only single one left in my friend group. But after years of trying to find love, I’ve concluded it may not exist for me anymore.
That is, until I accidentally hire Hallie Hart to renovate my house and our jaded history has me rewinding memories I’ve kept secret for years.
You see, there’s something that my friends don’t know.
That connection I’ve been looking for since I moved to Chicago, that one person some search their entire lives to find… I had already found her when I was twelve years old.
And now the only girl I’ve ever loved is moving into the house next door.Again. 

 

There's a lot to love about this hefty romance, from the misunderstandings and secrets keeping the main characters apart, to the fact that they were each other's first loves, and that they both carried a torch for one another for nearly a decade. I also loved the fact that Hallie didn't have to give up her dream job to move across the country to be with her beloved, because that is often the case in romances, the woman is nearly always the one to make big sacrifices in order to be with her partner. In this book, he sacrifices his dream of playing across the country and chooses to be with her in Chicago and build a family. Even though his horribly manipulative mother tries to blame Hallie as a teenager for her husbands infidelity that ultimately led to divorce. Hallie apologizes to her (WHY? She was an adult who had no right to take out her hurt feelings on a child for her husbands unforgivable behavior with Hallie's mother). Anyway, other than way too many references to interior design and hockey, both of which bore me to tears, this was an engrossing read, with sturdy prose and a well-paced plot. I'd give it a B and recommend it to anyone who likes second chance romance with your first love stories.

 

The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai is a dystopian LGBTQ romantasy that was just plain ODD, IMO. I found it engrossing, but so weird that I had to go back and re-read some chapters to make sure I understood where the characters were coming from and going to. Here's the blurb: Inception meets Indiana Jones in this cinematic, slow burn, romantic fantasy following a headstrong academic and her equally stubborn bodyguard as they unearth an ancient secret that rocks the foundations of their society…and challenges their unspoken love for one another. A sapphic, dark academia-adjacent, climate dystopia -- with mushrooms -- for readers of Blood Over Bright Haven, A Memory Called Empire, and Ink Blood Sister Scribe. 

 
Kiana Strade can dive deeper into blood memories than anyone alive. But instead of devoting her talents to the temple she’s meant to lead, Key wants to do research for the Museum of Human Memory. . . and to avoid the public eye.

Valerian IV's twin swords protect Key from murderous rivals and her own enthusiasm alike. Vale cares about Key as a friend—and maybe more—but most of all, she needs to keep her job so she can support her parents and siblings in the storm-torn south.

But when Key collects a memory that diverges from official history, only Vale sees the fallout. Key’s mentor suspiciously dismisses the finding; her powerful mother demands she stop research altogether. And Key, unusually affected by the memory, begins to lose moments, then minutes, then days.

As Vale becomes increasingly entangled in Key’s obsessive drive for answers, the women uncover a shattering discovery—and a devastating betrayal. Key and Vale can remain complicit, or they can jeopardize everything for the truth. 
Either way, Key is becoming consumed by the past in more ways than one, and time is running out 

 

This book read something like a PK Dick short story with an Asian flare, and it was somewhat hard to follow at first, because of the intricate world building involved. I adored Vale, who was doing her best by her beloved ritual seer, Key, and I thought Key came off as a spoiled rich girl who refused to think about the consequnces of her actions as she delves deeper into societies memories of how their world was destroyed and how the religious blood cult took over (headed by her mother). However, the prose and plot were engrossing and full of surprise twists and turns. I wasn't fond of the fact that we're left, as readers, not knowing of Key will tell the truth about memory retrieval to the dystopian world or whether she will be lured back into the religious cult built on a cannibalistic lie and substance (mushrooms) abuse, where her eidetic memory will be used to keep the public in line and funding the museum and church that rule the nation. All in all, a very uneasy and unsatisfying book. I'd give it a B- and only recommend it to those who like their fantasy laced with a horrific dystopian future.

 

Tea You At the Altar by Rebecca Thorne is is cozy romantasy that is by turns sweet and thrilling and joyously fun. This is the third book in this series that I've read, and it did not disappoint, with all the magic and dragons and fascinating characters anyone could want. Here's the blurb: 

DELUXE EDITION--featuring beautiful maroon sprayed edges, a beautiful color illustration, and a bonus short story!

The Princess Bride meets Bookshops and Bonedust in the third book of the Tomes & Tea series, where our favorite lesbian pirates must navigate the ultimate maelstrom--their own wedding!

Kianthe and Reyna are ready to finally walk down the aisle--in just seven days, their wedding of a wifetime will be a reality. There's loads to do--but like all best laid plans, everything seems to be going awry.

Between their baby dragons causing mayhem in Tawney, Kianthe's uptight parents inviting themselves to the wedding, and Reyna becoming embroiled in a secret plot to overthrow Queen Tilaine, the world seems against them--how are they going to live long enough to say "I do"?

 

Though it was a cozy story, in which you know everyone is safe and conflicts will be resolved with talk rather than bloodshed, I was still surprised by the amount of politics the author was able to cram into these pages, with a bloodless coup leading one of the main characters in charge of the kingdom. Thankfully, the lesbian romance also takes center stage in the last part of the book, and the main characters are able to tie the knot, after talking some sense into their bigoted parents. I adored the trans-pirate and their crew causing mayhem in this story, and I adored the sweet HEA ending. The prose was sparkling and the plot swift, so readers will find themselves turning pages into the wee hours. I'd give this lovely illustrated and designed paperback novel an A, and recommend it to fans of TJ Klune and Travis Baldree.

 

AP Ends Weekly Book Reviews, New Class of Critics Announced, Audiobook Walk, Kirkus Fall Books Preview, The Rise of On Tyranny, Obituary for Greg Iles, Ghostwritten Memoirs Are The New Status Symbol, Worldcon Returns to Seattle, Dear Miss Lake by AJ Pearce, The Medicine Woman of Galveston by Amanda Skenandore, Story of My Life by Lucy Score,A Tale of Mirth and Magic by Kristen Vale, and The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker

Hey there, bibliophiles and other bookish friends! August is almost over (hurrah!) and I'm hoping that September brings cooler temps and more rain, so all the dried up plants and grass will revive and the Emerald City will once again be green. Meanwhile, I've been reading up a storm, and I've got 5 books to review today, along with a few choice bookish tidbits. Enjoy!

 

This is such a bummer! The AP has really gone downhill in the past 10-15 years. 

 

Associated Press to End Weekly Book Reviews

In a note to reviewers, the AP said that as of September, the AP will no longer be in the regular book review business . The reasoning at this point is both familiar, disheartening, and intransigent: book reviews as a business proposition are extremely tough. This will greatly decrease the number of book reviews across the hundreds of papers the AP services. Celebrity book clubs, book influencers, Goodreads, and a just generally crappy market for traditional media have eroded the attention paid to regular reviews. I would say this is a real loss (and it is) but maybe the more depressing and honest read is that these reviews weren’t being read very much anyone, so maybe not that many will even notice.

So they've gotten a bunch of critics no one has ever heard of to write reviews, which are a dying art. And only the last few papers of record will be featuring book reviews. This just makes me sad.

 

New Class of NBCC Emerging Critics Announced

And yet people are still going to write about books. I cannot say I recognize any of these emerging critics (that is sort of the point), but in looking through their bios, the array of publications they have written for is wide, even if the titles may not be familiar. There are so many smaller publications that remain dedicated to writing about books and so many people who want to write about them, that there will be a sort of eternal flame for criticism. But criticism as something that routinely appears in for-profit enterprises at scale? Only the titans (The NYT, New York Mag, The Atlantic, etc) are likely to continue.

Audiobook Walk...a Great Idea

"Introverts unite!" Gibson's Bookstore, Concord, N.H., posted on social media to promote an "audiobook walk" the shop is hosting on Saturday, August 23. "RAIN OR SHINE! Bring an umbrella if it looks like rain!" the bookseller added. "Get your headphones and cue up your audiobooks, we're going for an audiobook walk... meet us outside of Gibson's Bookstore at 10 a.m. We'll head out on a one-mile loop around downtown Concord (walkers can choose to do an additional loop or two, if they'd like!) and will end back at Gibson's! If you don't already have a Libro.fm membership, you can sign up at libro.fm/gibsonsbookstore. Hope to see you there!"

I used to write reviews for Kirkus, and they were a real pain in the tuchas. I spent so many hours reading and re-reading the books, and then tailoring specific reviews that the 50 dollars I was paid to complete them became completely meaningless.

 

Kirkus’ Fall Books Preview

Some look forward to leaves turning. Other to the return of football or pumpkin spice. Me? I am a "fall books preview" guy. Give me 300 books I want to read. Add another 200 that I would never read but just like to know about. And a few hundred "man humans are a range" titles that are simply beyond me. I want it all. And sometimes, I want to see the handful of titles that someone who is really in it is excited about. Tom Beer, Editor-in-Chief of Kirkus, is definitely in it, so looking at his short(ish) list carries extra weight with me.

With the rise of Cheeto Hitler in the White House and Fascists in the Legislature, it's not surprising people are searching for books to help make sense of it all. 

 

The Irresistible Rise of On Tyranny

1.4 million copies sold. A quarter million of those in 2025. Left-leaning people process their political feeling by buying books (1984 & The Handmaid’s Tale  in 2016, a mini-course worth of books about racism in the wake of George Floyd). The latest to cash-in is Timothy Snyder’s slender, easy-to-digest On Tyranny. If you have been in an indie bookstore lately, you probably (as Laura Miller wisely observes) have been it near the cash register. An impulse-buy for the doomscrolling set. Unsurprisingly, it has been all over social media, but the harder question to answer is this: did social media make it or is social media just reflecting that people are buying it? The answer is somewhere in the messy middle.

 

I've read maybe two of Iles books in my lifetime, but I recall that he was an excellent prose stylist, and I'm sorry to see that he's my age and passed of cancer. RIP.

 

Obituary Note: Greg Iles

Greg Iles,the bestselling author of the Natchez Burning trilogy (Natchez Burning,

The Bone Tree, and Mississippi Blood) and other works, died August 15

after a decades-long battle with the blood cancer multiple myeloma, the

Associated Press reported. He was 65. Born in Germany, Iles moved to

Natchez, Miss., with his family when he was three and developed a deep

connection with the region, the AP noted, adding that many of his

stories are set in the state, including historical fiction suspense

novels exploring race and class in the 1960s Jim Crow South.

His other books include Cemetery Road (2019), The Death Factory (2014),

The Devil's Punchbowl (2009), Third Degree (2007), True Evil (2006),

Turning Angel (2005), Blood Memory (2005), The Footprints of God (2003), The Quiet Game (1999), and Spandau Phoenix (1993).

In a social media post announcing Iles's death, Dan Conaway, his agent,

described the author as "warm, funny, fearless, and completely sui

generis. To be on the other end of the phone as he talked through character and plot, problem-solving on the fly, was to be witness to genius at work,

plain and simple. As a writer he fused story-craft, bone-deep humanity,

and a growing sense of moral and political responsibility with the

ferocious precisions of a whirling dervish or a master watchmaker.... I

also want to express my profound gratitude to Caroline, his wife, for

her friendship, and my sorrow and sympathy to the whole Iles family for

this impossible loss."

This doesn't surprise me, though my cynical side is disgusted with these one percenters who are trying to make themselves seem like "self-made men" when most inherited their wealth and had significant advantages growing up and a lot of support to get them started in business. This is an insult to those who struggle to survive and their parents who have done the same, without all the advantages of old white racist men, who profited off the poor. I hope that their books crash and burn and are never heard from again. Most, if not all, of these privileged asshats have never worked a day in their lives.

 

Ghostwritten Memoirs Are the New Wealth Status Symbol

Wealthy retirees, many of whom "just want the kids to know how hard they had it," are spending up to $100,000 to commission ghost-written memoirs. Oh, the irony. The trend is popular enough that a cottage industry has sprung up to support it, with some older folks use all-inclusive services that pair them with interviewers who sit with them for multiple sessions before passing the transcripts to a ghostwriter who pulls them into a cohesive story. Those lucky enough to have $10 million or more with a Cleveland-based wealth management firm receive a "free" ghostwritten memoir as a perk offered "to ease clients’ fears that their heirs won’t understand the value of hard work." If I resist the urge to roll my eyes all the way to the back of my head while muttering about how boomers really did ruin it for the rest of us, I can find some sympathy for the end-of-life concern about leaving a legacy. We all want to be seen, after all. But a hundred grand? Sure feels excessive. And exploitative?! Probably that, too. Storyworth will do this for you for $99, and, dare I say it, this might actually be a great use-case for AI.

I wish to heck I could have attended, but with my crappy immune system that wasn't a possibility, unfortunately. Sounds like a good time was had by all. I especially regret missing John Scalzi, a favorite author of mine.

 

All Things Science Fiction: WorldCon Returns to Seattle

Seattle WorldCon 2025 took place August 13-17, the first time the World Science Fiction Convention was back in Seattle, Wash., since 1961. World Science Fiction Society members attended in person and online, celebrating the past, present, and future of SF and fantasy creators and fans. Attendees had a pick of panels, readings, discussion groups, and workshops in 44 tracks, with topics that included academics, comics, fandoms, costume, editing/publishing, non-Western literature, genre history, and more.

Hundreds of attendees filled the Friday session "A Genre in Conversation

with Itself" to hear Isabel Kim (Sublimation), John Scalzi (When the

Moon Hits Your Eye), Becky Chambers (Monk and Robot series), George R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire series), and Neil Clarke (editor,

Clarkesworld magazine) discuss science fiction's proclivity for tributes

and critiques. Clarke said, "We're looking for things that add to the

conversation... something that does something different or brings it to

relevance to the next generation."

Scalzi quipped that the science fiction genre itself is like free-form

jazz and added that not every response text is addressed to a previous

written work. "It can be about a trend that you see going on or about a

trope you see people using uncritically... all is up for response,

criticism or commentary."

Dear Miss Lake by AJ Pearce is an historical romance novel that was truly a delight to read. I've read the other three books in this series, and I'm so sad to think this is the last one, though it ends with an HEA that is very satisfying. Here's the blurb: Plucky wartime advice columnist Emmy Lake discovers that sometimes it takes losing everything to find what we need most.

London, July 1944. After nearly five years of war, the readers of Woman’s Friend magazine are relying on the support of Emmy Lake and her team more than ever. With the city under attack, the magazine staff decamps to the countryside for the summer. Determined to help the women of Britain carry on, Emmy and friends are hard at work finding new ways to inspire resilience.

With her army officer husband Charles posted close to home, and best friend Bunty by her side, Emmy happily throws herself into rural life, juggling children, magazine assignments, and plans for a very important wedding. And then a call comes that means she may finally fulfill her long-held dream of becoming a war correspondent.

But when disaster strikes, Emmy needs her friends, her community, and her readers more than ever. Filled with courage and compassion, a lovable cast of characters, and winning wartime details, Dear Miss Lake is an enormously uplifting testament to the power of friendship and hope.  

 I loved that Emmy and Charles made it through the war intact, and were able to be together, and that the gang was also able to carry on and live their lives after the horrors of WWII were nearly behind them. This book puts WWII British women on the homefront directly in the spotlight and includes childrens perspective, while also delving into the frustrations of finding lost men and POWs via the Red Cross and the government. The prose, as always, is sterling, full of wit and warmth, while the plot whizzes by so fast that its hard to keep up. I'd give this marvelous novel of the end of the second World War an A, and recommend it highly to anyone who has read Pearce's other 3 novels.

 

The Medicine Woman of Galveston by Amanda Skenandore is a historical adventure with a through-line of romance that takes place at the turn of the 20th century. Here's the blurb: 

The author of The Nurse’s Secret delivers a haunting new book based on true history perfect for readers of Kristin Hannah. This spellbinding story of a determined female doctor pushed into life as part of a menacing swindler’s traveling medicine show in order to support her son is rife with unflinching prose and set against the backdrop of the devastating Galveston Hurricane of 1900.

Once a trailblazer in the field of medicine, Dr. Tucia Hatherley hasn’t touched a scalpel or stethoscope since she made a fatal mistake in the operating theater. Instead, she works in a corset factory, striving to earn enough to support her disabled son. When even that livelihood is threatened, Tucia is left with one option—to join a wily, charismatic showman named Huey and become part of his traveling medicine show.

Her medical license lends the show a pretense of credibility, but the cures and tonics Tucia is forced to peddle are little more than purgatives and bathwater. Loathing the duplicity, even as she finds uneasy kinship with the other misfit performers, Tucia vows to leave as soon as her debts are paid and start a new life with her son—if Huey will ever let her go.

When the show reaches Galveston, Texas, Tucia tries to break free from Huey, only to be pulled even deeper into his schemes. But there is a far greater reckoning ahead, as a September storm becomes a devastating hurricane that will decimate the Gulf Coast—and challenge Tucia to recover her belief in medicine, in the goodness of others—and in herself.

I've read The Nurses Secret, so I'm somewhat familiar with this author's work, and I appreciate her attention to historical detail, though at times it slows down the plot considerably. I also appreciated that the author focused on Tucia, a female doctor, struggling to find acceptance at a time of great misogyny in society when women were treated to every kind of sexual harassment and rape if they attempted to live a life outside the bounds of convention, especially as single mothers. Considering that Tucia was traumatized during her residency by a professor who raped her and then worked to get her fired from her position, I had expected her to be slightly mentally unstable, (and her son was born with Down's Syndrome, which was then called idiocy or mongoloidism, both purjorative terms, wherein society expected the mothers of said children to lock them away in horrible asylums), but Tucia wasn't even able to tolerate the sight of blood or injury, and was prone to vomiting and fainting for a majority of the novel, which seemed weak and pathetic to me. She finally gets ahold of herself and is able to act like a doctor and surgeon for the last part of the book, but it's largely due to a huge emergency when she's the only medical person around who can save anyone. Having been a sexual harassment survivor myself, I always felt that if you didn't get on with your life and show some mettle, you let the rapist male asshats win, and that won't do. Tucia also was smothering her son, and not disciplining him or teaching him right from wrong could only lead to many behavioral problems in the future. I detest spinelessness in women, though I understand women throughout history have had little choice in dealing with men who had total control over their lives and livelihoods. I'd give this engrossing tale, which takes place across the south, not just in Texas, a B- and recommend it to those interested in pioneering women in the early 20th century.

 

Story Of My Life by Lucy Score is a utterly delicious and hilarious rom-com, full of spicy/steamy love scenes and witty dialog. I couldn't put it down, though it was a hefty tome weighing in at over 500 pages. Here's the blurb: 

A Gilmore Girls meets Schitt's Creek redemption romcom. What's more inspiring to a romcom author than a hot, grumpy contractor literally knocking down walls?

Hazel Hart was a successful romance novelist until a breakup drives her straight into writer's block. Having failed (and failed some more) to deliver her new manuscript, she's hiding from the world behind a wall of old takeout containers until her publisher lays down the law. If she misses her next deadline it's The End.

Desperate for inspiration, Hazel impulse-buys a historic home online and flees Manhattan to tiny Story Lake, PA. Upon her dramatic arrival―involving an incident with a bald eagle―she discovers the charm of her new home may have been slightly exaggerated.

The house is a wreck and the town is struggling after their biggest employer shut down. Also, since her raccoon-infested home came with a seat on the town council our introverted heroine is stuck with a front row seat to all the small-town shenanigans.

But Hazel isn't worried. Not since all six-feet-three inches of grouchy contractor Campbell Bishop slapped a bandage on her forehead and unintentionally inspired the heck out of her. There's only one thing to do: Hire Cam and his equally gorgeous brothers to renovate her new spider museum…er…house.

Okay two things. A fake date for "research purposes" will really put her work-in-progress on track. Before Hazel knows it, she's writing a romance novel and living one. At least until the drywall dust settles, the town she's falling in love with faces bankruptcy, and growly Cam remembers why he can't live happily ever after.

I loved Hazel and, though he's a tropish/cliche of a leading man, I adored Campbell, too. The cozy romance setting, along with the whole "fish out of water" NYC woman visits gossipy small town a few states away, had me laughing out loud and wishing that I could find a place that was untouched by time and technology like Story Lake. I grew up in a series of small towns in Iowa, and though they seemed boring to a child, (and they no longer exist, unfortunately), I would give anything to time travel back to them and spend time with all the old gossipy ladies at the church or senior home, or attend the oddball fair (called, I kid you not, The Old Thresher's Reunion), held every year in a huge pasture, where you could smell the sorghum cooking in a kettle over the fire and the corn dogs frying or the sweet dough cooking with cinnamon and sugar. Such great memories that today's kids will be deprived of, because most small towns like Story Lake haven't survived. Still, the prose sparkled with wit and romance, and the plot was fast as lightening. I'd give it an A, and recommend it as an engrossing page-turner to take with you on a long airplane flight or trip to some exotic locale.

 

A Tale of Mirth And Magic by Kristen Vale is a cozy magical romantasy that pulls readers in from page one and doesn't let them go until the wonderful HEA. I loved the inclusiveness of this book, and the contrast between the big purple giant and the chubby, self-confident elf whose magic brings mayhem with it. Here's the blurb: 

A maker of magical jewelry finds her life turned upside down when she ends up on the run with a half-giant in this spicy and cozy fantasy romance—perfect for fans of Legends & Lattes and The Spellshop. 

Elikki may not have a family, but she has her fierce independence, boundless charm, and enough talent as a jewelry artisan to make a living on the road. Unfortunately for some, she also can’t yet manage to control her chaotic magic. . . and her temper. Sweet, soft Barra lives a quiet life with his mas and three sisters, managing the books for his family’s business. All he wants is to blend in and not make waves—a bit tricky, as a nearly eight-foot-tall purple half-giant. 
 
When Elikki lands in hot water after dealing with a particularly rude customer, Barra finds himself helping her flee the constables. With a bounty on her back—and a severe crush forming on his end—they decide to travel together to the next town. So begins a journey filled with cozy inns, delicious meals, heaps of excellent sex, and a sprinkling of danger.  As their adventures bring them closer together and the threat of capture rises they find themselves changing in surprising ways. He’s given up on finding love. She’s always refused to try. But traveling together, they may discover unexpected, powerful romance and stronger self-identities—if the bounty hunters don’t get them first. 

Though the blurb makes it sound spicier than it actually is, I loved the romance between the shy giant and the bright and bubbly elf who loves herself just as she is, regardless of the circumstances. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the fabulous meals and food that they encounter on their journey, and I loved the way El manages to put magic into each of her jeweled creations. That she also gets the better of a sleazeball guy who tries to sexually harass her and steal her work, is just icing on the cake. Vale's prose is mesmerizing and her plot never stalls or slows, even for long descriptions of people, places, or meals. I'd give this fantastic read an A, and recommend it to fans of TJ Klune or Legends and Lattes. 

 

The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker is an inappropriately titled fantasy novel for multiple reasons, the first of which is that the female protagonist, Nora, isn't a thinking woman at all. She's a gullible idiot who keeps making the same mistakes over and over, and doesn't get a handle on even the simplest magic until the last third of the book, and even then, she still sucks because she falls in love with her much older teacher for reasons we're never fully clued in on.  Because love apparently makes fools of us all, Nora can't focus on her magic and continues to be pathetic as an apprentice and a person in this pseudo-medieval world. Also, the magic is only "real" in this pre-industrial world, and one of the main problems Nora has is that there is no "guide" to how magic works at all. Here's the blurb: An imaginative story of a woman caught in an alternate world—where she will need to learn the skills of magic to survive

Nora Fischer’s dissertation is stalled and her boyfriend is about to marry another woman.  During a miserable weekend at a friend’s wedding, Nora wanders off and walks through a portal into a different world where she’s transformed from a drab grad student into a stunning beauty.  Before long, she has a set of glamorous new friends and her romance with gorgeous, masterful Raclin is heating up. It’s almost too good to be true.

Then the elegant veneer shatters. Nora’s new fantasy world turns darker, a fairy tale gone incredibly wrong. Making it here will take skills Nora never learned in graduate school. Her only real ally—and a reluctant one at that—is the magician Aruendiel, a grim, reclusive figure with a biting tongue and a shrouded past. And it will take her becoming Aruendiel’s student—and learning magic herself—to survive. When a passage home finally opens, Nora must weigh her “real life” against the dangerous power of love and magic. 

It just seemed amazing (and strained my credulity) that a woman of this day and age had never heard the cautionary tales of the Fae/Fairies that most of us grew up on. The tales that tell you to never make a bargain with a fairy, that they set glamors on everything to make it look beautiful, when in reality, under the illusion, they're hideously ugly creatures whose environs are dirty woodlands and whose food is rotten acorns and twigs and fungus. They can't reproduce well, so they steal human children from their cribs and replace them with magical stick creatures who are nasty and evil. They've also been known to try and breed with human women, but it doesn't work out most times because the Fae are a different species than humans. We're also told never to eat or drink anything offered in fairyland, because its magicked to twist your mind into thinking everything is beautiful, when these beings don't care whether you live or die. But Nora has gotten through her whole life apparently completely ignorant of these evil tricksters, so she falls for every single fairy cliche and nearly dies because of it. What an idiot. Then she finds she yearns to go back to them, even after all the glamors and charms are removed...again, what an idiot! I kept waiting for Nora to smarten up, but she never does...she just falls for the head magician, though he's a nasty piece of work and crushes her flirtations, making it clear he's not interested in her (she doesn't listen and continues to pursue him...ugh! Idiocy!) Though it was over 550 pages long, this poorly written, dully plotted novel seemed like a thousand pages of dreadfulness. I'd give it a D, and I can't think of anyone to recommend it to, it's misogynistic and depressing. Blech.

Oprah Picks Russo's Bridge of Sighs, Hard vs Soft Science Fiction, Keeping Up With What Dan Read, Surprise First Edition Hobbit Found, Hamilton On the Big Screen, Queer Authors Withdraw From Consideration, Obit for Sallie Bingham, Of Flame and Fury by Mikayla Bridge, Lightlark and Nightbane by Alex Aster, and Mortal Arts by Anna Lee Huber

Welcome to nearly mid-August! That means we're even closer to fall, with lower temps and gray skies full of frost and the promise of cozy reading under blankets indoors, with spiced cider and purring cats. Perfection! Anyway, here's a whole lotta tidbits and my usual reviews...hang in there, fellow sun-haters! Summer's almost over!

 

I'm not sure why Oprah has been recommending mostly old white male authors (they really don't need the boost in sales like female or LGBTQ or POC authors do), but here she is going into Russo's backlist for a title that wasn't that popular over 20 years ago. Sigh. How can she be so out of touch with readers/publishers and marketers? 

 

Oprah's Book Club Pick: Bridge of Sighs

Oprah Winfrey turned back the clock and chose Richard Russo's 2007 novel

Bridge of Sighs (Vintage) as the August Oprah's Book Club Pick,

Oprah Daily reported, noting: "This book has everything you need for a

classic summer read--romance, unrequited love, lifelong friendships--and

of course epic family drama.... You all know I love a story that sweeps

you up, and this one is not going to disappoint."

"It is, of course, a profound honor to be chosen for Oprah's Book Club,"

said Russo. "But to be chosen for a novel written two decades earlier? A

book that will introduce a whole new generation of readers to my work?

How special is that?"

Oprah described Russo as "a master at capturing the ordinary moments

that reveal some of the deepest truths, especially in small-town

novels."

This is a definition that, as a veteran reader of SF, I've been asked to provide for the past 50 + years. Though I'm a fan of both, I never framed it as a Doctor Who vs Star Trek definition....not that that doesn't work, but I always felt that so called "soft" SF got a bad rap because it took on social questions and problems, such as racism, sexism and relationships and provided a futuristic look at what might happen if those questions were taken on during a journey on a spaceship (ala Marta Randall) or on another world (ala Ursula LeGuin) or on our own world, centuries in the future (ala Zenna Henderson and her People novels). The "hard" SF novels that I read were often good thriller-type books, but sometimes, as with Azimov or AC Clarke, the plot got bogged down in science info-dumps that were often really boring and tedious if you weren't a scientist yourself, as I wasn't. Still, I did love the imaginative creations of hard SF, like flying cars, and I'm glad that a lot of the tech on Star Trek's original series became reality within my lifetime.

 

Hard vs Soft Science Fiction, Defined

Hard and soft science fiction are terms you may have heard bandied about in talks about the genre. Both have their ardent fans who don’t really like the other. Sometimes, books straddle the line, causing some debate. But, what exactly is the difference between hard sci-fi and soft sci-fi?

In hard science fiction, the science is really important, central to the story, even. The science is accurate. It is well-researched and grounded in a futuristic view of proven science that exists in our world. Often, writers of hard sci-fi have a background in science and frequently put scientists as important characters in their books.

Soft science fiction, on the other hand, uses speculative elements to tell stories that focus on people. These can be deeply philosophical stories, religious stories, and literary stories about interpersonal relationships. Think Star Trek or Doctor Who, where the science is made up, and the speculative elements are really just there to tell very human stories. Warp drives are not based in real science. The TARDIS moves through time because it does.

They're acting like 80 books a year is a big deal. I read at least 120 (usually closer to 200) books a year and I review them on my blog. Even as a 4 year old in 1964, I read as many books as I could get my little hands on. (I figure at this point the count of books consumed over my lifetime would be well into the 100,000 range).  This Dan dude's got nothing on me!

He sounds like my kind of guy, though, and I think that giving out a list of the books you have read and loved at your funeral is a splendid and inspired idea.

 

Robert Gray: Keeping Up with 'What Dan Read'

I've always felt like an underachiever as a reader when measured by

volume. Twenty years ago, I confessed my slow reading habits in a blog

post about ARCs ("I'm Reading as Fast as I Can!!"), noting that although

I had increased my reading speed somewhat--out of professional

necessity--during the first 13 years I'd been a frontline bookseller, I

still felt like a biblio-laggard.

Strangely, though, "my customers think I'm a reading machine," I wrote

then. "They will sometimes ask, with unmasked awe, 'How many books do

you read per week?' It's as if they think I've become some kind of

Electrolux, devouring pages as fast as they come off the printing press.

The truth is more mundane.

"Often I have three, four, or five books going at once, and continue to

cast my eyes with hunger and longing at the endless stream of new and

tempting titles that come across my desk. And I often just graze,

reading 50 pages and bailing if I'm not fully engaged. Nevertheless, the

stack on my desk continues to grow at a pace that outstrips my ability

to keep up. I seem to look for reasons not to continue reading, reasons

to give myself a break and move on to the next title."

So it was with a long-gestating mixture of awe and humility that I

recently learned about the extraordinary reading life of Dan Pelzer, who

died at the age of 92 on July 1. He logged all 3,599 of the books he had

read since 1962, when "he first began jotting his reads down on his language class work sheets while stationed in Nepal with the Peace Corps, to 2023, when his eyesight failed him and he could no longer read," the New York Times reported.

Most of his books came from the Whitehall Branch of the Columbus, Ohio,

Metropolitan Library, which posted on Facebook a message from his

daughter, Marci Pelzer, who noted, in part: "Nobody loved the library

more than Dan.

When we were little, he took us to the downtown library every Saturday

morning and enrolled us in every summer reading program. He was a

regular at the Livingston and then Whitehall branches until he could no

longer read. I'm sure he would be among your highest circulation and

longest term borrowers."

She had considered printing his reading list to distribute at the

funeral, but it was too long and ultimately she asked her godson create

a website featuring What Dan Read, a digitiized version of the handwritten list that guests could access through a QR code on the back of the funeral program.

The library has since created book displays in his honor at the Whitehall Branch and at Main Library.

When I wrote that blog post mentioned above in 2005, I had just returned

home from BookExpo, where I had once again been showered with gifts in

the form of ARCs and "now, a new mound of guilt towers above me at this

desk. I did not grab them off stacks on a mad locust tour of the show

floor. These were nearly all given to me personally by publishers,

editors, or authors, who each time handed me the most precious gift they

had to give: their work, their life, their hope. I do not have a vested

interest in any of the titles that come my way until I read and love

them."

I asked myself then: "When will I read all these galleys? Can I read

them all? Will I read yours? Maybe, maybe not. But, rest assured that,

within the considerable limitations of my ability, time, and attention

span, I'll be reading as fast as I can."

I'm no Dan Pelzer though.--Robert Gray

WOW! I love it when a fellow bibliophile finds a book treasure in an unlikely place. My best friend once found a first edition Hemingway and a first printing of Moby Dick and made enough from their sale to keep her going for an entire year.

 

"Surprise!" Screamed the Shelf

As it chucked a rare and pristine copy of The Hobbit at your head. While this doesn’t exactly describe what rare books specialist Caitlin Riley experienced, she was no less astonished by the sight of such a gem amidst the detritus of an otherwise unremarkable house clean-out. The first-edition, first-impression copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic appeared fresh from the presses, which is, as Bayliss Rare Books owner Oliver Bayliss told The New York Times , "As rare as Smaug’s treasure, frankly." Needless to say, it was the last thing Riley expected to see and it brought her to joyful tears. It might be that the owner knew C.S. Lewis and, through him, Tolkien. I’m as interested in the story of how this copy came into the possession of the Priestley family as I am about its current condition. Like, was it a ruefully accepted, regifted housewarming present from Lewis? The copy is currently at auction, so if you have £20,000 (as of writing this) to spare, you might be able to get your hands on this literary diamond and wonder at it in person.

How exciting! I would love to watch this amazing Tony Award winning smash hit on the big screen!

 

Your Chance to Watch Hamilton on the Big Screen

If, like me, you’ve only had the opportunity to watch Hamilton on the small screen, you’re in luck. The Broadway sensation is coming to theaters on September 5th. Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda announced that the "live capture" of the original cast production sent to streaming during the pandemic is finally making its way to the big screen in celebration of the play’s 10-year anniversary. Fans nationwide and in Puerto Rico will have the chance to watch this historic historical musical in the theater, so get that soundtrack ready and make sure you’ve got all the lines memorized so you don’t get left out when everyone in the audience starts singing along.

This is just sad...why anyone would align themselves with a known transphobic author who has caused so much controversy is beyond me.

Queer Writing Prize Sees Nominated Authors Withdraw From Consideration

Many authors nominated for The Polari Prize have withdrawn their name from consideration in protest of the inclusion of John Boyne among the nominees. Boyne has aligned himself publicly with JK Rowling’s unhinged transphobia. And in what should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, this is not really cool with a bunch of folks. Withdrawing your name from consideration is an underrated mode of resistance, perhaps especially within groups you might feel naturally aligned.

I love that this courageous journalist questioned prejudice and misogyny in the newspaper business and brought about the demise of the family empire due to their poor treatment of women and minorities. RIP Sallie.

Obituary Note: Sallie Bingham

Sallie Bingham the author, playwright, philanthropist, feminist, and political activist "whose feud with her brother helped topple the Kentucky publishing and media dynasty into which she was born," died August 6, the New York

Times reported. She was 88.

In 1918, her paternal grandfather, Robert Worth Bingham, bought the

Louisville Courier-Journal and the Louisville Times. The newspapers, run

next by her father, Barry Bingham Sr., "flourished in the decades that

followed. They won Pulitzer Prizes and became known for their liberal

political positions. But by the 1980s, the newspaper industry was in

financial trouble," the Times wrote.

Sallie Bingham had been living in New York City since graduating from

Radcliffe College in 1958. She published a novel, After Such Knowledge

(1960), and many short stories, but in 1977 she returned to Louisville,

hoping to advance her career as a playwright and improve family

relations. Her brother, Barry Bingham Jr., was by then running the

newspapers, and she attended board meetings for a few years before

joining the Courier-Journal's staff as book page editor in 1981.

"She soon began questioning the paper's treatment of its employees,

particularly women and members of minority groups, and publicly joined a

political committee, violating the company's ethics rules," the Times

wrote. Forced off the companies' boards in 1983 by her brother, she

eventually put her shares up for sale to the general public, a move that

ultimately led to the sale of the entire family business.

Her book Passion and Prejudice: A Family Memoir (1989) condemned the

Bingham family, and the system in which it operated, as immoral,

misogynist, and racist. Afterwards, Bingham returned to writing novels,

including Small Victories (1992), Matron of Honor (1996), and Taken by

the Shawnee (2024).

In 2024, she told the Santa Fe., N.M., arts magazine Pasatiempo she

would concentrate on historical fiction, noting: "After 30 years as a

writer, I've done all I can do in fiction. I'm kind of tired of my own

point of view." Two of her last books were nonfiction: The Silver Swan:

In Search of Doris Duke (2020) and the memoir Little Brother (2022),

about her brother Jonathan, who died in 1964 at the age of 21 after

being accidentally electrocuted.

On her blog, Bingham cited her time at the newspaper as inspiration to

create the foundation: "I was aware from my years as book editor at the

Courier-Journal of the amount of work that women did at the Bingham

companies; almost entirely in lower-paid jobs such as distributing mail,

cooking and serving in the company cafeteria, working as secretaries or

cleaning. These women were about to lose their jobs with the sale of the

company."

Of Flame and Fury by Mikayla Bridge is a beautifully produced novel with a gorgeous cover and painted edge papers that use phoenixes in place of dragons to create a YA romantasy that is different than Fourth Wing, but still stuffed to the gills with the same old tropes as all the romantasy written in the past 10 years of so. Here's the blurb: 

Fourth Wing meets Iron Widow in this enemies-to-lovers romantic fantasy by debut author Mikayla Bridge. 
On an island built from ash and shrouded in fire, phoenix racing is a sport just as profitable as it is deadly.

Kel Varra and her team of underdogs, the Crimson Howlers, are desperate to win the annual races and the fortune that comes with it. But the Howlers need a new rider, which leads Kel to join forces with Warren “Coup” Coupers – an arrogant rival she can’t get out of her head.

As tensions rise on and off the track, Kel accepts a job from a mysterious tech mogul who shows an unsettling interest in her phoenix, Savita. This thrusts Kel into a conspiracy that endangers everyone she cares about, especially Coup, as her resentment ignites into something dangerously new.

Heart-pounding pages full of fiery romance, jaw-dropping confessions, political scheming, and volatile magic culminate in a final battle that none may survive.

 

What really bothers me about YA/Teen romantasy is that the guy half of the couple is nearly always an asshole, so much so that you want to see him dead before the book is half done. He abuses the female protagonist and everyone around her, but because he has a tragic backstory, once she learns he's "damaged" all is forgiven and suddenly she can't help herself from falling in love/lust with his bad boy good looks and style, though he is still a jerk. Why? Why must the young women in these books all hate themselves and yet feel compelled to "rescue and rehabilitate" their rival male protagonists, when the guy rarely changes much and is not really worth it. Of course he makes it clear that he's up for hate sex at any time, but why should these otherwise smart and talented young women settle for just another sexist jerk who wants to get in their pants?!? Kel should have let Coup be hung on his own petard, as the saying goes, and had some faith in herself as a rider and member of the Howlers. The prose was surprisingly fine for a first time author, but the plot lagged in spots, and, as I've said, it was riddled with cliches and tropes throughout. I'd give this book a B-, and recommend it to those who don't want to think too much while reading summer romantasies.

 

Lightlark by Alex Aster is another YA romantasy, complete with a Hunger Games-esque plot and Game of Thrones-like characters. Here's the blurb: A gripping, propulsive YA fantasy novel from award-winning author and social media superstar Alex Aster, “Lightlark is an ebullient, fast-paced fantasy with a beautifully rendered world that seethes with intrigue, romance and tension. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough” ( Sabaa Tahir)

Welcome to the Centennial.

Every hundred years, the island of Lightlark appears for only 100 days to host a deadly game, where the rulers of six realms fight to break their curses and win unparalleled power. Each ruler has something to hide. Each curse is uniquely wicked. To break them—and save themselves and their realms—one ruler must die.

To survive, Isla Crown must lie, cheat, and betray. Even as love complicates everything.
Because I purchased both the first and second books in this series, I wasn't too put out by the cliffhangery ending. The prose was engrossing and the plot of the first book sizzled along like an egg on an August afternoon sidewalk. I liked Isla, up until she started to be dumbed down with lust for the villain Grim, who, like Edward from Twilight, was sexy somehow because he felt and looked like a corpse, with hard, marble-like muscles, cold shadows and a vicious outlook on life and everyone except, in the final third of the book, Isla, whose winsome innocence and starving body full of scars suddenly became irresistible to him. Again, I don't understand why these young women suddenly lost all sense and mental acuity because they fall in love with the ruthless and evil male protagonist who, in this case, as tried to kill her several times...wow, now that is sexy, being the target of a serial killer! (Sarcasm). Anyway, I'd give the first book in the series a B, and recommend it to the Twilight crowd of YA readers, and those who like the completely derivative Fourth Wing.

 

Nightbane by Alex Aster is the second book in this YA romantasy series (I assume that there is, unfortunately, more of this melodramatic claptrap out there), wherein Isla, who has become involved with the King and now fears Grim, whom she unwittingly married, and has to choose between the two as to whom to save and whom to kill. Sigh. How romantic(?) Here's the blurb: Isla Crown has secured the love of two powerful rulers and broken the curses that plagued the six realms for centuries, but few know the true origins of her powers.

Now, in the wake of a crushing betrayal, Isla finds herself struggling to win respect as the newly crowned leader of two separate realms. Worse, her fellow rulers haven’t ceded victory quietly, and there are others in Isla’s midst who don’t believe her ascent to power was earned.

As certain death races toward Lightlark and secrets from the past begin to unravel, Isla must weigh her responsibility to her people against the whims of the most dangerous traitor of all: her heart.

Alex Aster’s intricate world expands after the riveting culmination of the Centennial games, delving more deeply into Isla’s memories of her past, as her future hurtles toward two possible fates. 

As per usual in these "dark" romantasies, the female protagonist, Isla, gets beat up and scarred and bloodied in her quest for whatever magical macguffin will help her save her world and the people in it. Sadly, the book ends as it began, in bloodshed and pain, with Isla being an idiot and declaring that she loves both Oro and Grim, and then she teleports away from the battlefield with Grim because, she declares, as all good melodramatic teenagers would, "We're both monsters!" and she feels the king is too good for her, that she only deserves the love of the implacable, emotionless and cruel king of the Nightshades, Grim. So I was left thinking, "All that crap for this ending?" NOT worth it. I'd give this second book a C+ and only recommend it to those who liked Lightlark so much they can't wait to see more of Isla's denegration and submission to "the dark side of the force."

 

Mortal Arts by Anna Lee Huber is a historical mystery/romance series that I've read about 5 books of, and while they're always interesting, the author could use an editor to trim out the overly long descriptions of 19th century attire, food and social politics, which become tedious fast. Here's the blurb: 

From the national bestselling author of The Anatonmist's Wife comes the second historical mystery featuring enigmatic sleuth Lady Kiera Darby.

Scotland, 1830. Lady Kiera Darby is no stranger to intrigue—in fact, it seems to follow wherever she goes. After her foray into murder investigation, Kiera must journey to Edinburgh with her family so that her pregnant sister can be close to proper medical care. But the city is full of many things Kiera isn’t quite ready to face: the society ladies keen on judging her, her fellow investigator—and romantic entanglement—Sebastian Gage, and ultimately, another deadly mystery.

Kiera’s old friend Michael Dalmay is about to be married, but the arrival of his older brother—and Kiera’s childhood art tutor—William, has thrown everything into chaos. For ten years Will has been missing, committed to an insane asylum by his own father. Kiera is sympathetic to her mentor’s plight, especially when rumors swirl about a local girl gone missing. Now Kiera must once again employ her knowledge of the macabre and join forces with Gage in order to prove the innocence of a beloved family friend—and save the marriage of another.

 

Having read farther along in the series, I know that Gage and Kiera marry and have a child, but it was still exciting to see the genesis of their relationship in this early book of the series. I also liked that this novel dealt with PTSD of the time, and the horrible conditions and treatment of mental illness in asylums, which were little more than prisons run by ghoulish doctors who experimented on and tortured their patients every day for years, until they were mad or died. Huber's prose is overwritten but her plots move along at a stately pace. I'd give this second book in the series a B+ and recommend it to anyone interested in women of the early 19th century.