NB: We received two different reviews for this book, and thought both perspectives were interesting and thoughtful. We’re sharing both to encourage discussion and to highlight different expectations and results of reading anticipated books – and we definitely want to know what you thought, too! This guest review is by PamG. PamG is a life-long reader who began her word addiction as a kid wandering the library stacks and choosing books by blurb and cover … Continue reading Guest Review: The Austen Playbook by Lucy Parker →
The Princess and the Fangirl is a romantic YA retelling of The Prince and the Pauper, set at a science fiction convention. This book, the second in the Geekerella series, includes a f/f romance and a f/m romance but is primarily about the personal growth of the two heroines, Jessica and Imogene. It is lighter than a piece of glitter but does a good job of capturing the crowded, crazy convention world. You can certainly get … Continue reading The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston →
Nicola Cornick’s writing continues to suck me in and it’s very difficult for me to put her books down. The writing is atmospheric in a way that’s both vivid and eerie, as are the descriptions of place and of slightly menacing suspense, which is often formed within the history of a location repeating itself in multiple timelines. The Woman in the Lake follows three women in two different timelines. Fenella Brightwell is in the present … Continue reading The Woman in the Lake by Nicola Cornick →
It has come to my attention that there is a romance series about a kraken shifter and a unicorn shifter. I feel it my responsibility to investigate these things and ask the required questions, such as, “But HOW, tho?” I do it it for you, Bitches, and for the sake of SCIENCE, which isn’t afraid to ask the hard questions. It turns out that this series, the Wriggle and Sparkle series, is extremely adorable. The … Continue reading Wriggle & Sparkle by Megan Derr →
TW/CW: sexual assault. I enjoyed The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding by Jennifer Robson, mostly because it tackles a subject that is dear to my heart: why is traditionally-female created art (think quilting, embroidering, knitting) labeled “a craft” and of less than value than male-produced art? As a historical novel, a full third of the narrative I found to be unnecessary, which meant there were parts of the book I had to slog through … Continue reading The Gown by Jennifer Robson →
The Au Pair by Emma Rous is a slightly Gothic psychological thriller that focuses on one woman’s suspicion that she might not be physically related to her own family. The premise is excellent and while I kept turning pages well into the night, I found that when I finished the book, I was only slightly satisfied with the resolution. Part of that is because the final reveals are executed a little clumsily. The other part … Continue reading The Au Pair by Emma Rous →
Please note: this review is for both the plot and the audiobook performance. I mentioned on a recent podcast that I’ve been listening to the Evan Evans series by Rhys Bowen on audiobook while I cross stitch and cook (not at the same time – too many stains on the aida, I should think). I realized that listening to an audiobook is both very soothing and avidly addictive for my brain as long as two … Continue reading Evans Above by Rhys Bowen →
I recently described this book’s plot as a road with several roundabouts in a row, in which the story gets stuck before moving on. It’s the best description I can come up with to explain why this book frustrated me both in terms of plot development and character development. The story opens with Rosie Radeke, a teenager from a small town in Ohio, on her first international flight to Paris. She’s been accepted into a … Continue reading Love à La Mode by Stephanie Kate Strohm →
Sophie Appersett is engaged to Edward (Ned) Sharpe. She’s the daughter of a baron; he’s a very wealthy merchant, and their alliance is built over a massive class chasm, one that she’s trying to cross with continued conversation, while he remains silent and withdrawn in all of their outings together. Sophie decides she’s not willing to continue the engagement because they don’t suit. She wants more for herself, and from his behavior she’s pretty sure … Continue reading A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews →
Close to the Bone by Kendra Elliot is the first in a romantic suspense novella duology and features a creepy cold case on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest. Cate Wilde is a FBI Special Agent who is taking some time off after being shot on the job. She’s staying with her grandmother on Widow’s Island, where she grew up, when a skeleton of a young woman is found on nearby Ruby Island. Cate … Continue reading Close to the Bone by Kendra Elliot →
Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life is a relatively new release and yet it reads like a biography from the 1970’s or 1980’s. There’s a lot of fat shaming. The Edwardian period is heavily sentimentalized. Several parts of the story are imagined in a dreamy, poetic manner. The author sides with Christie on all fronts, minimizing her racism and anti-Semitism (as was typical of her era, Christie disliked Italians as well, which is also minimized) and justifying … Continue reading Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life by Laura Thompson →
