Holly Black’s first novel marketed for adults is a gritty urban fantasy in which magic allows people to control their own, and sometimes other people’s, shadows, and in which the rich and powerful trade in secrets and books of lore while jockeying for power. The protagonist, Charlie, lives in the world of normality, where she is a bartender hoping to put her sister through college, and the world of magic, in which she is a … Continue reading Book of Night by Holly Black →
Content Warning I picked up Greener Pastures when I was trying to break a late-night doomscrolling habit, and found it to be solid bedtime reading, if a bit dull. It’s a wholesome fish out of water romance where women fall in love over farm chores. The romance is solid enough to be distracting, but moves so slowly that it’s easy to put the book down and get some sleep. The most important thing you need … Continue reading Greener Pastures by Aurora Rey →
Oooooh, folks, if you have ever thought, “I’d like a book about Pre-Code Hollywood, please, but make it queer, add magic and a dollop of horror, and have the main character be a Chinese-American lesbian who stars in monster movies as a killer mermaid,” then first of all I would say, “Wow, that’s very specific!” and then I would say, “Luckily here is the book RIGHT HERE!” because Siren Queen is pretty amazing. Our heroine, … Continue reading Siren Queen by Nghi Vo →
The Mad Girls of New York is a fictionalized retelling of the real-life reporter Nellie Bly’s breakthrough investigation into The Women’s Insane Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. The novel is at its best when it sticks to the facts and when it keeps its focus on Nellie and women that she meets. It suffers when the attention shifts to a rival reporter, the fictional Sam Colton. In both this book and in real life, Nellie Bly … Continue reading The Mad Girls of New York by Maya Rodale →
When Women Were Dragons is unlike any other book I’ve read and I found to be painful, joyous, and liberating. I couldn’t stop reading it even when it made my chest hurt, and I’ve thought of it so many times since, with scenes popping into my head as though I just read them yesterday. This is not a romance, but it will appeal to those who like women’s history with a side of rage and … Continue reading When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill →
The Long Game is the sequel to Heated Rivalry, the rivals-to-lovers hockey romance that pairs Ilya, an infuriating Russian, with his hockey nemesis, sunny Shane. Heated Rivalry has a permanent home on my keeper shelf, but the book ends with a HFN. I was dying to revisit these two and see them have a more permanent HEA. Unfortunately, I had three main issues with this book–Shane is a dick for most of it; the homophobia … Continue reading The Long Game by Rachel Reid →
Take the horror elements from T. Kingfisher’s novel The Hollow Places and combine them with the character dynamics and gentle, slow-burn romance of the Paladin series and you get Nettle and Bone, a fairy tale in which a princess enlists the help of a witch, a warrior, and an evil godmother in her efforts to kill a prince. I ate this book up to the detriment of several other things that I was supposed to … Continue reading Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher →
I picked up The No-Show because based on the blurb, I thought this would be some sort of feminist revenge fantasy. Said blurb: Three women who seemingly have nothing in common find that they’re involved with the same man in this smart new rom-com by Beth O’Leary, bestselling author of The Flatshare. Sadly this does not end in a sisterhood pact over this man’s grave. Despite my wrong assumptions, I hoovered up this book in … Continue reading The No-Show by Beth O’Leary →
Following the events of Written in the Stars and Hang the Moon, Margot is the only single person left in her tight-knit friend group. So, even though she’s not interested in a romantic relationship, Margot is starting to feel lonely and like an afterthought. That is, until her childhood best friend (who Margot was also head over heels for and had her heart broken by) drops back into her life—and her apartment. Recently divorced from … Continue reading Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur →
Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed by Saraciea J. Fennell (ed.) is tough for me to grade. As many of the other reviewers have mentioned in the past, anthologies can be a struggle to evaluate because invariably some stories are going to resonate more than others. But also I struggled because, despite being Latina, I did not feel like the target audience for this book. The primary aim of this anthology of essays is breaking down … Continue reading Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed edited by Saraciea J. Fennell →
Bluebird is science fiction that includes the following: a female protagonist, two love stories of which one is f/f and one f/m, a spaceship, smuggling, a bar fight, political intrigue, badass librarians, secret identities, found and biological family, rebellion, a heist, major angst, chase scenes, and jewelry. I could not one-click this thing fast enough, and presumably most of you will not actually read this review because you have also one-clicked and are already reading … Continue reading Bluebird by Ciel Pierlot →
