Ursula K LeGuin Awards, These Summer Storms Comes to TV, Letters From the Last Apothecary by Bita Behzadi, The Reimagining of Thornwood House by Jaleigh Johnson, Moonfire by Nathan Wright, To Hunt a Ruby Remedy by Jen Lynning, Star Crossed Letters by Sarah Deeham, and Claws and Cocktails by Tabitha Slick

Hey Book People! I've been procrastinating about this final post of the month, because I've been in pain and I've had to have a bunch of blood tests and other tests and set up some procedures for next month and December. I also found a small lump in my breast, so I've got to go get a mammogram ASAP, which is another worry to add to my growing list of health concerns. So forgive me if I try and make this post quick and to the point...I'm tired and don't have a lot of energy to get things done. Sorry!

UKLeGuin is one of my all time favorite science fiction authors, and having met her several times, I adored her spicy attitude. I was wreaked when she passed. Anyway, I'm glad that she left behind an award for fiction writers...she was adamant that women were often overlooked for book awards.

Awards: Ursula K. Le Guin Fiction Winner

Audition by Pip Adam (Coffee House Press) has won the $25,000 Ursula K.Le Guin Prize for Fiction, honoring "a single work of imaginative fiction" and recognizing "writers who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now."

Organizers described the winning book this way: "In Audition, a spaceship is hurtling through the cosmos. Squashed immobile into its largest room are three giants: Alba, Stanley, and Drew. If they talk, the spaceship keeps moving; if they are silent, they resume growing. Talk they must, and as they do, Alba, Stanley, and Drew recover their shared memory of what has been done to their former selves--experiences of imprisonment, violence, and disempowerment."

The judges said, "Adam uses innovative narrative structure and impeccable prose to do what SFF--what only SFF at its best--can do: make metaphor concrete to completely change our understanding not just of what is happening in the narrative but also how today's society works. [Audition] gradually assumes the urgency of survival as three people whom society has deemed worthless find their way back to themselves, each other, and hope. An astonishing and ultimately joyful work."

I read this book and I hope that the series will live up to the general themes and well-devised plot.

TV: These Summer Storms

These Summer Storms, a drama series based on Sarah MacLean's 2025 novel, is in development at Hulu from Erin and Sara Foster, showrunners for Netflix's hit series Nobody Wants This, Deadline reported.

Written by Melanie Marnich (Apples Never Fall), the new series "follows Alice Storm who hasn't been welcome at her family's magnificent private island off the Rhode Island coast in five years--not since she was cast out and built her life beyond the Storm name, influence, and untold billions. But the shocking death of her larger-than-life father changes everything."

"I'm absolutely thrilled to be working with the Foster sisters, 20th Television and Hulu to bring These Summer Storms to the screen," MacLean said. "The team's vision for the show, combined with Melanie Marnich's brilliant writing, has made the whole project a dream come true. I cannot wait for the world to witness the delicious chaos of the Storm family in this new, exciting medium."

Letters From the Last Apothecary by Bita Behzadi is a cozy romantasy that is written in half epistolary sections and half general novel prose that is engaging and often poignant. Here's the blurb: This debut cozy historical romantic fantasy is about a grumpy apothecarist, the whirlwind woman who comes to save his shop, and the letters that secretly unite them.

Nestled between steel skyscrapers lies a small shop stocked with old magic and experimental elixirs. This cozy historical romantic fantasy debut is a tale of mistaken identity, reluctant partnership, and the quiet, transformative magic of being truly seen—on and off the page.

Josephine Pinova doesn’t believe in fate. Yet, it must be fate when she walks into one of the last magical apothecaries in the city and they offer her a job after she’s just been fired.

Struggling against a tide of anti-magic sentiment amidst the city's rapid industrialization, the shop is slated to close in six short months unless Josie can save it. Luckily, she's no stranger to impossible odd—she's applying to study magic at the local university, something women are typically excluded from—even as the shop's prickly apothecarist, Aufidius Reid, seems determined to dislike her.

Reid finds her unbearably insistent. She finds him infuriatingly uptight—nothing like the sensitive scholar Josie has been exchanging anonymous letters with as they study together for entrance to a graduate magic program. A scholar who just so happens to be Reid himself, unbeknownst to either of them.

Letter by letter, they fall in love. But at work, Josie and Reid clash constantly about the direction of the business. As pressure rises, they discover the threat to the shop is more dangerous than they could have ever imagined, and working together to save it might be their only chance at true purpose, and at each other.

 

I enjoyed Josie's tough feminist stance at a time (the turn of the 20th century) when women had to fight for every scrap of independence and civil rights.  What bothered me was the old, tired trope of a young woman who suddenly loses half her brain cells and power to chart her own path through life the moment she meets and inevitably falls for a usually mean-spirited man who has only half her intellectual wattage. Once Reid and Josie figure out that in real life they clash, but in letters they bare their souls and fall in love, all bets are off as to how or when or even if they can save the last apothecary shop from the local mob (turns out its actually a rich asshat who has pretended to be Reids friend for decades who is trying to force the shop to close...so, plot twist!) Fortunately, they work together and manage to save the shop and their careers at the same time, all tied up with an HEA. I'd give this book and its snappy plot an A-, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys epistolary romantasies.

 

The Reimagining of Thornwood House by Jaleigh Johnson is a sweet combination of cozy fantasy and a  Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro) script, with some legendary myths of a witch/baba yaga house that walks on chicken legs thrown in for good measure. There's also some romantasy and a sprinkling of humor throughout the book, which ends up being a real page-turner. Here's the blurb: A witch and her young ward discover a magical, walking house and learn the true meaning of home in this cozy, enchanting novel from bestselling author Jaleigh Johnson.

Evelyn Sharpe is accustomed to dealing with natural disasters as a land witch, but she longs for a life with a little less danger for her and her adopted daughter, Ruby. So when the opportunity to take over as Caretaker of Thornwood House—a sentient home that acts as the magical heart of the village of Iskendra—arises, it seems almost fated.

When they arrive in sunny Iskendra, Evie and Ruby find the house is nothing like what they expected: First of all, it has walked away from the address. Thornwood House is also grumpy, guarded, and extremely hesitant to allow the two witches through its doors.

Armed with gentle hearts and wild magic, Evie and Ruby begin to form tentative bonds with the house and the citizens of the small town. But there’s something deeply damaged about the building seeping into the forests surrounding Iskendra, and Evie will have to use all her power to protect the roots she’s started to grow.

 

This book is just as much about healing from grief and loss as it is about a magical house and the two women who come to occupy and rehabilitate it.  Once Evie uncovers the secret of the magical blue oak trees, she and Ruby are able to replant its magic into the house, and the house can start to heal itself. the prose sparkles with vivid imagery and the plot wafts like a cooling summer breeze. I delighted in nearly every chapter. I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who likes books about magical people and homes.

 

Moonfire by Nathan Wright is an urban action fantasy novel, and to be honest, it's a weak, watered down version of Jim Butcher's magnificent Dresden Files novels. If I were Butcher, I'd sue the pants off Nathan Wright for stealing Harry Dresden and making him weaker and not as bright, and plopping him down in Kentucky, where he does a crap job of being Lexington's Go-To Wizard. Here's the blurb: As the appointed Wizard Guardian of Lexington, Kentucky, Ethan Lancaster can brew a mean potion. But Lexington is a lazy post, with few threats on the horizon.

That changes when a team of elite monster-hunters shows up at his shop to purchase dangerous elixirs for an even more dangerous job, and Ethan’s idyllic days get a hell of a lot more hectic. Teaming up with a goblin in exile, and a shady information broker, Guardian Lancaster will quickly learn whether he can live up to his classical wizard training. If Ethan can’t endure this trial by fire, he won’t be the only one reduced to ashes—Lexington itself will burn by moonlight.

Welcome to The Chronicles of Ethan Lancaster (editor's note: AKA Harry Dresden's poor cousin).

Magic is real, monsters lurk in the shadows, and keeping the balance always requires tough choices.
Ethan Lancaster is the Wizard Guardian of Lexington, Kentucky—book-smart, (not really) awkward, and still wondering if he’s actually qualified for the job. He knows spells, can quote magical texts like they’re bedtime stories, and can recite obscure theory better than most, but when monsters start treating Lexington like an all-you-can-eat buffet, none of that matters.

It’s his job to keep the city safe—whether he’s ready for it or not. He’s another urban fantasy wizard, sure—but with more anxiety and fewer dramatic coat flourishes....insert eye roll here. 

 

As a lifelong Fan of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, I was outraged, and then just saddened that Mr Wright couldn't imagine his own character, but instead felt the need to steal/plagiarize Harry Dresden, Chicago's finest Wizard, and turn him into a wimpy, weak and stupid "guardian" who can't do his job effectively. He says in the blurb that he "adds anxiety and fewer coat flourishes" but Harry doesn't need to have anxiety after all he's been through, nor does he need to dispense with his powered-up protective coat flourishes...those are part and parcel of what makes him a great character, one that will stand the test of time, long after this self-published monstrosity is consigned to the great dumpster in the sky. the prose is as weak as the protagonist, and there are typos throughout. The plot is paint-by-numbers easy and becomes tedious about halfway through. I would give this disappointing novel a C, and I can't think of anyone I'd recommend it to, because I'd tell them they're better off reading the original bad-ass Dresden Files.

 

To Hunt a Ruby Remedy by Jen Lynning is a little red riding hood romantasy that barely holds together, even with its ancient fairy tale underpinnings. Here's the blurb: 

The man who opened this cottage door is hiding more than big teeth.

Not even a journey to the Drakona Forest will stop Scarlette from getting the magical cure her mother needs. But when the door to the healer’s cottage opens, she doesn’t find the grandmother she expected. The man on the other side is scowling, curt, and smoking hot. He also wants Scarlette gone. Now.

Ranulf prefers his solitude, especially with a dragon-hunter roaming his woods. The last thing he needs is a distractingly attractive woman under his roof. She doesn’t belong in his isolated world, even if resisting her sunny smiles (and delicious pies) is proving harder than Ranulf expected.

When the huntsman sets his sights on Scarlette, Ranulf can no longer hide his secrets. He can protect Scarlette – but how will he survive the heartbreak of sending her away?

  

This is one of those books that reads like it was written by an 18 year old for a YA audience that she assumes all see romance in the same drippy, saccharine way that she does. Hint: They don't. Not only is the prose simplistic, the plot has holes you could drive a wagon through. The two main characters spend a lot of time trying not to drool over one another, but eventually they get together for a soupy HEA. I'd give this book a C+ and only recommend it to those who want easy-reading romantasy for, say, the beach or waiting in line at the store or doctors office.

 

Star-Crossed Letters by Sarah Deeham is a YA friends-to-lovers romance that is liberally doused with humor. Here's the blurb: A friends-to-lovers celebrity pen-pal romance with a bookish girl, a movie star, and a typewriter meet-cute.

The bookshop barista & the celebrity...
When I sold a vintage typewriter, I never imagined its new owner would become my pen pal, best friend, and secret crush.
We have two rules: no photos and no real names.

Over the years, “Remington” and I go from typewritten notes to daily texts, but our rules stay the same. And so does my life. I’m a wannabe writer who can’t complete a novel, and I’ve fallen for a guy who I’ve never met.

So when I receive a letter my Nanna wrote before she died encouraging me to embark on a summer of risks—my first on the list is to break all the rules.

I don't want to keep secrets from my pen pal. She's more than my best friend. She's my everything. But I’m Hollywood’s hottest celebrity, and my fame is toxic. I can't risk losing what we have if she finds out who I really am. Our anonymous friendship works until “Typewriter Girl” suddenly goes silent. Now, I’ll do anything to ensure she’s safe, including stepping out from behind the screen and leading a double life.

I love pen-pal epistolary novels because letters make characters more honest and vulnerable, and they're fun to read. So I initially enjoyed this book, but got tired of the way the two main characters kept hiding behind their nicknames-fake identities.I also liked the witty bouts of humor throughout the book, but those trickled down to near nothing by the end. Still, I'd give the book a B- and recommend it to anyone looking for a fantasy celebrity/regular person romance that will give a lot of teenage girls hope to meet their celeb crush.

 

Claws and Cocktails by Tabitha Slick is a midlife paranormal women's fantasy novel that has heavy notes of manic pixie dream girl with big strong guy protagonist to the rescue seasoned throughout the plot....so if you're into the 80s and 90s sexist romantic tropes, this is the book for you. Chivalry is not dead, especially when it comes to Tinkerbell fan fiction, which is what this reads like. 

 Here's the blurb: 

Rejected by the ones they loved. Forced together by a twist of fate.

In the small town of Havenwood, Zera, a dedicated and independent pixie, single mother, and bartender, faces the harsh reality of rejection when her werewolf ex-lover deserts her for his pack and a new flame.

Swearing off men, she relies on her half sister for support, determined to forge ahead with her life. Despite her adamant stance, she's reluctantly convinced to go on a blind date, vowing to dislike whoever the unfortunate fae might be. To her horror, she's set up with Maverick Harris, a mysterious werewolf who seems perfect, almost irresistible, until the truth unravels.

He's a spy, their date is a cover, and to ensure Zera's safety, she must pretend to be his wife.

What is odd about this inter-species romance is how a tiny magical pixie could fall in lust and then love with a huge (to her) werewolf who wants to possess and protect her, no matter the cost. How do huge wolves manage to mate with tiny fairies? The author uses the standard sex scene descriptions here, with the usual oral sex for the girl, followed by oral sex for the guy, or just a wait until he can get it up again and "fill her" with his massive penis. There's a lot of complimenting the female protagonist, because no matter how enchantingly gorgeous she is, she's still insecure and fears that something about her makes her unlovable or ugly. The male protagonist is always described the same, tall, with a massive chest and shoulders and big biceps/arms, and big thighs, and of course a big dick, because supposedly women like that (I have yet to meet a woman who cares about penis size, she just wants to be treated with gentle kindness, respect and love). I'd give this magical, almost Disney-esque novel a B-, and recommend it to anyone with a fairy fetish.