Isabel Allende's New Barbie, Primetime Emmy Winners by the Book, Summer Reading by Jenn McKinlay, The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson, The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent, The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland, and Twelfth Night by Deanna Raybourn

Howdy bibliophiles and friends of bookstores and libraries! Its the third week of September, and I'm reading up a storm! So much so that I'm running out of books on my main TBR pile to read, which is sad, but I'm hoping to come across some more books soon, either at the library or on Amazon (I know, but there's no bookstore in my town). Anyway, here we go with a couple of tidbits and a lot of reviews.

 I've always loved Isabel Allende's work, as has my mother, so I'm excited that she has a Barbie doppelganger coming out. While I'm too old for dolls, I think the next generation of girls will be inspired by IA Barbie and her inspirational life.

 

Isabel Allende, a Barbie Inspiring Woman

Mattel Creations has added Isabel Allende to its Barbie Inspiring Women

Series. The company "proudly honors author and activist Isabel Allende.

Now one of the most widely read writers in the world, Isabel Allende

first began raising her powerful voice while in exile from a military

coup in her home country of Chile. She began a letter, that would become

a book, that would become a lifetime of telling the stories of women and

girls."

The doll costs $35 and will be available to the public later in October.

In other Allende news, Ballantine is publishing the author's next novel,

My Name Is Emilia del Valle, on May 6, 2025, which, the publisher says,

"follows the story of a woman much like Isabel herself and what her

Barbie represents--an impassioned female writer breaking barriers,

challenging gender norms, and being a voice for the voiceless. Set in

the late 1800s, Emilia starts out writing under a man's pen name, but

she goes on to reclaim her given name and go on a life-changing voyage

from San Francisco to Chile to cover a brewing civil war. There, she

falls in love, reconnects with her estranged father, and finds herself

in the literal trenches of war and political danger. And ultimately, she

discovers her roots and rises to her destiny."

I loved The Morning Show and though I've not made it through the entire season, I've enjoyed several episodes of the new version of Shogun. Hiroyuki Sanada is a fantastic actor...even an eyebrow raised on his face carries worlds of meaning and pathos.

 

Primetime Emmy Winners by the Book

At last night's Emmy Awards https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscVLaxu8I6a5vckwiEg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6mVCMenpoMLg-gVdw celebration,

book-related productions had their moments of glory, with Shogun,

adapted from James Clavell's 1975 bestselling novel, leading the way

with four major category wins. Bookish Emmys went to:

Shogun, based on James Clavell's novel: Drama series; lead actress in a

drama series (Anna Sawai); lead actor in a drama series (Hiroyuki

Sanada); directing for a drama series (Frederick E.O. Toye)

The Morning Show, based on Brian Stelter's nonfiction book Top of the

Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV: Supporting actor in a

drama series (Billy Crudup)

Ripley, based on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley: Directing

for a limited series, anthology or movie (Steven Zaillian)

Slow Horses, based on Mick Herron's Slough House spy novel series:

Writing for a drama series (Will Smith)

Summer Reading by Jenn McKinlay is a delicious summer rom com novel that has a neuro-diverse female protagonist and a librarian male protagonist who find that although they're very different, their chemistry and love for one another finds a way to overcome any challenge. Here's the blurb:

When a woman who’d rather do anything than read meets a swoon-worthy bookworm, sparks fly, making for one hot-summer fling in Jenn McKinlay's new rom-com.

For Samantha Gale, a summer on Martha’s Vineyard at her family’s tiny cottage was supposed to be about resurrecting her career as a chef, until she’s tasked with chaperoning her half-brother, Tyler. The teenage brainiac is spending his summer at the local library in a robotics competition, and there’s no place Sam, who has dyslexia, likes less than the library. And because the universe hates her, the library’s interim director turns out to be the hot-reader guy whose book she accidentally destroyed on the ferry ride to the island.

Bennett Reynolds is on a quest to find his father, whose identity he’s never known. He’s taken the temporary job on the island to research the summer his mother spent there when she got pregnant with him. Ben tells himself he isn't interested in a relationship right now. Yet as soon as Sam knocks his book into the ocean, he can’t stop thinking about her.

An irresistible attraction blossoms when Ben inspires Sam to create the cookbook she’s always dreamed about and she jumps all in on helping him find his father, and soon they realize their summer fling may heat up into a happily ever after.

Sam and Ben's romance is one for the ages, and I loved that Ben sees Sam for who she truly is, beneath her insecurities about her dyslexia and her dislike of reading in a regular fashion. Ben reads to her, and introduces her to the world of fiction in audiobooks, which elevates her experience of storytelling and forges a bond between the two of them. McKinlay's prose is spicy and tingly, making the plot bounce along like it's on a trampoline. The book is produced in a dyslexia-friendly sans serif font that makes the book longer, page-wise, but it all goes by fast, so it doesn't feel like an onerous task to read the book all the way through. I'd give it a B+, and recommend it to anyone looking for a fun read while it's still warm enough out to go to the beach.

 

The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson is another fun rom-com style contemporary romance, one that starts with a meet-cute and ends with a satisfying HEA. Here's the blurb: A professional baseball player and his heckler prove that true love is worth going to bat for in the next swoony romance by author Alicia Thompson.

Daphne Brink doesn’t follow baseball, but watching “America’s Snoozefest” certainly beats sitting at home in the days after she signs her divorce papers. After one too many ballpark beers, she heckles Carolina Battery player Chris Kepler, who quickly proves there might actually be a little crying in baseball. Horrified, Daphne reaches out to Chris on social media to apologize . . . but forgets to identify herself as his heckler in her message.

Chris doesn’t usually respond to random fans on social media, but he’s grieving and fragile after an emotionally turbulent few months. When a DM from “Duckie” catches his eye, he impulsively messages back. Duckie is sweet, funny, and seems to understand him in a way no one else does.

Daphne isn’t sure how much longer she can keep lying to Chris, especially as she starts working with the team in real life and their feelings for each other deepen. When he finds out the truth, will it be three strikes, she’s out?

 

 During the course of this novel, I learned a lot more about baseball than I ever wanted to know. That said, the author kept the sex scenes at a minimum until the final third of the book...she also kept Daphne's dual identity a secret until the book was nearly finished, which made the whole make-up sex and declarations of love seem a bit fast and forced. I liked that Daphne was kind of a goof, and that she is always there for her friend Layla, who seems like a bossy b*tch to her best friend, forcing her to be a sports broadcaster when she is an introvert and would rather not be on the air.  But alls well that ends well, and even the trope of enemies/celebrities to lovers and the ever-perfect petite woman protagonist were done so well in this book that you wouldn't notice them unless you were looking for them. I'd give this book a B-, and recommend it to sports fans who also love a good sexy romantic storyline.

 

The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent is the sequel to The Serpent and the Wings of Night, which I believe I read last year. Both are romantasy novels with a grimdark bent in a dystopian world. Here's the blurb:

Love is a sacrifice at the altar of power.

In the wake of the Kejari, everything Oraya once thought to be true has been destroyed. A prisoner in her own kingdom, grieving the only family she ever had, and reeling from a gutting betrayal, she no longer even knows the truth of her own blood. She’s left only with one certainty: she cannot trust anyone, least of all Raihn.

The House of Night, too, is surrounded by enemies. Raihn’s own nobles are none too eager to accept a Turned king, especially one who was once a slave. And the House of Blood digs their claws into the kingdom, threatening to tear it apart from the inside.

When Raihn offers Oraya a secret alliance, taking the deal is her only chance at reclaiming her kingdom–and gaining her vengeance against the lover who betrayed her. But to do so, she’ll need to harness a devastating ancient power, intertwined with her father’s greatest secrets.

But with enemies closing in on all sides, nothing is as it seems. As she unravels her past and faces her future, Oraya finds herself forced to choose between the bloody reality of seizing power – and the devastating love that could be her downfall.

Full of heartbreak, redemption, bloody intrigue, and heart-pounding action, The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King is the gutting second installment of the Crowns of Nyaxia series, and the conclusion of the Nightborn Duet – perfect for fans of From Blood and Ash and A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Note how many times the word BLOOD is used in the blurb, and then multiply that by 100 and prepare yourself for a battlefield horror fest that is interspersed with sex and a woman attempting to negotiate her life with some agency, despite the misogyny surrounding her. Though I'm not a fan of horror, I felt that the love story between Rain and Oraya was intriguing enough to keep me going until the end. However, the author's consistent use of a no-win scenario, where the protagonists are certain to die (but of course they don't, and they're saved by the Gods or sheer fate and a stubborn refusal to die) became tedious by the 3rd time Broadbent used it. The author's prose was gore-soaked but tough and intelligent enough to keep the reader going through all the bumps and near-death experiences that make up the plot. I'd give it a B-, and recommend it to fans or gory horror/battlefield junkies who also like ferocious romances.

 

The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland is and LGBTQ  YA supernatural story centered around three girls who are attempting to undo the mistakes of their past and forge a brighter future for themselves. Here's the blurb: Three girls, one supernatural killer on the loose . . .

Zara Jones believes in magic because the alternative is too painful to consider—that her murdered sister is gone forever and there is nothing she can do about it. Rather than grieving and moving on, Zara decides she will do whatever it takes to claw her sister back from the grave—even trading in the occult.

Jude Wolf may be the daughter of a billionaire, but she is also undeniably cursed. After a deal with a demon went horribly wrong, her soul has been slowly turning necrotic. It’s a miserable existence marred by pain, sickness, and monstrous things that taunt her in the night. Now that she’s glimpsed what’s beyond the veil, Jude’s desperate to find someone to undo the damage she’s done to herself.

Enter Emer Byrne, an orphaned witch with a dark past and a deadly power, a.k.a. the solution to both Zara’s and Jude’s problems. Though Emer lives a hardscrabble life, she gives away her most valuable asset—her invocations—to women in desperate situations who are willing to sacrifice a piece of their soul in exchange for a scrap of power. Zara and Jude are willing, but they first have to find Emer.

When Emer’s clients start turning up dead all over London, a vital clue leads Zara and Jude right to her. If a serial killer is targeting her clients, Emer wants to know why—and to stop them. She strikes a tenuous alliance with Zara and Jude to hunt a killer before they are next on his list, even if she can’t give them in return what Zara and Jude want most: a sister and a soul. 

 

At first, I found it hard to believe that three young women could be so stupid as to get themselves harnessed to three demons, seeking to find a necromancer to revive a sister long dead, and an impoverished witch who has put herself on the radar of those who "shall not suffer a witch to live." But then I remembered how stupid I was when I was a teenager and into my early 20s, and I realized that I needed to cut these young women a break. We all make mistakes, especially emotionally driven ones, when we're young. That said, I liked Emer the best out of the three gals, mainly because she was smarter than the other two, and had better ideas of how to help them out of their dire situations. I also liked the fact that the author made it clear that magic and magical power always has a price, and often that price is your life and/or your soul. Too many books about magic and magic users make it seem easy and fun, when that doesn't seem at all realistic. Anything requiring power would logically also require sacrifice. The HFN ending was not too sappy, but the strong prose and fast-paced plot kept it all together for an engrossing B worthy read. I'd recommend it to fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

 

Twelfth Night by Deanna Raybourn is a Lady Julia Grey Mystery, the 8th one of hers that I've read (though it might not be the 8th in the series...I've read them out of order).  These are historical mysteries set in the 19th century, and as with all of Raybourn's books, they're an engrossing and fascinating read, full of romance and thrills. Here's the blurb: An amateur sleuth and her detective husband probe the mystery of an abandoned baby and eerie legend in the Victorian English countryside in this novella.

To mark the passing of another decade, the esteemed—and eccentric—March family have assembled at Bellmont Abbey to perform the Twelfth Night Revels for their sleepy English village. But before Lady Julia and her handsome, sleuthing husband, Nicolas Brisbane, can take to the stage, a ruckus in the stable yard demands their attention. An abandoned infant is found nestled in the steel helm of St. George. What’s more, their only lead is the local legend of a haunted cottage and its ghastly inhabitant—who seems to have returned.

Once again, Lady Julia and Nicholas take up the challenge to investigate, and when the source of the mystery is revealed, they’ll be faced with an impossible choice—one that will alter the course of their lives . . . forever.

Lady Julia is an amazing character who somehow manages to keep her marriage happy, solve crimes with her husband and now raise his illegitimate half brother. I know that later in the series Lady J gets pregnant and that she and Nicholas have a daughter together, but I think it is wonderful that the two of them are there for this poor baby boy who is unwanted by his fearful mother and unknown to his horrible criminal father. Raybourn is a fantastic prose stylist, and her plots are razor sharp and never lag or leave readers floundering in a tedious info-dump. I'd give this novel an A, and recommend it to anyone who has read any of the other Lady Julia mysteries, or those who enjoy historical mysteries with a strong romantic thread woven throughout the book.