Wooooow. This is a book with some serious “absinthe + Yeats” energy. I don’t know what happened, but it was certainly operatic. I liked the imagery but must post a STRONG TW: The Absinthe Earl is a fantasy romance set in 1882. I’ll let the publisher set everything up for you: Miss Ada Quicksilver, a student of London’s Lovelace Academy for Promising Young Women, is spending her holiday in Ireland to pursue her anthropological study … Continue reading The Absinthe Earl by Sharon Lynn Fisher →
This YA graphic novel is very sweet and perfect for fall. I’m not sure that much about it will stay with me, but it was a good use of a leisurely autumn lunch break. Mooncakes tells the story of Nova, a teen witch, and her childhood friend Tam, a werewolf, who is back in town after a several-year absence. Tam is trying to defeat a local demon who has possessed a horse (unlike most of … Continue reading Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu →
Never in my life have I made grabby hands as ferocious as the ones I made when I saw Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction. This book describes the life and work of women in speculative fiction starting with Margaret Cavendish and ending with Jewelle Gomez (and shorter mentions of many others). This is out just in time for you to make your Halloween reading list and since it mentions … Continue reading Monster She Wrote by Lisa Kröger and Melanie Anderson →
Caution warnings: In MJ James’ debut Out of the Ashes, Alex Porter loses everything when the bookshop that he rebelled against his wealthy family to build goes up in flames. His overbearing mother insists that a fire marshall be called for, so Matt Fields has to drop everything and devote himself to the case, and Alex. I wanted to like Out of the Ashes. Queer mysteries are my wheelhouse, and I’m always looking for new … Continue reading Out of the Ashes by MJ James →
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh is a gorgeous novella that feels somewhere between fairy tale and myth, only it’s the kind of myth that is probably true. One comes away from reading it with the feeling that yes, this is what happens in the woods, and also feeling both eager and afraid to go for a walk in the woods and perhaps lose oneself there. It’s very hard to say much about the … Continue reading Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh →
All I needed to know is that this book had a billionaire heroine with a smattering of enemies-to-lovers. I began repeatedly stalking NetGalley offerings. I checked daily for weeks before the gods took pity on me. Baby plots aren’t my bag, but I was willing to overlook that for the sake of A FREAKING BILLIONAIRE HEROINE. And honestly, the pregnancy plot doesn’t rank high on my issues with this book. Both the hero and heroine … Continue reading Lush Money by Angelina M. Lopez →
In Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, the heroine is mesmerized by the scandalous gothic novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho. Readers, I read that novel. My paperback Oxford World’s Classics edition (1998) of The Mysteries of Udolpho is 679 pages long, not counting introduction and notes. That’s a lot of mysteries. I read this so you don’t have to. SPOILERS AHEAD. The Mysteries of Udolpho was a huge hit for author Ann Radcliffe when it first came out in … Continue reading The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe →
This book is not going to be for everyone because it’s an erotic romance with a boss/employee scenario, although if that pairing is your jam, you will almost certainly love it. I totally understand and respect that not everyone is comfortable with that power dynamic in fiction. Personally, I like it, and I particularly enjoyed how this book handles it because it addresses and challenges that dynamic head on, rather than brushing past it (more … Continue reading The X Ingredient by Roslyn Sinclair →
TW/CW: Murder, attempted rape, beheading/separated limbs. I deeply, deeply enjoyed The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh. Or, a lot of it, anyway. The Beautiful takes place in 1872 New Orleans, where a young former dressmaker named Celine arrives after fleeing Paris. She arrives with several other young women from Europe and they are all to be settled in a convent together until they marry. Celine quickly becomes drawn to a young woman named Odette, who hires … Continue reading The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh →
The Grace Year is described as a “haunting, feminist YA speculative thriller,” and I mostly agree with that assessment. It’s twisted, memorable, and eerie (there is a tree from which severed fingers and other body parts hang). It’s a book you’ll be thinking about for days after you’ve finished reading, but it does struggle with being overly ambitious in subplots and when it comes to a satisfactory ending, it doesn’t stick the landing. There is … Continue reading The Grace Year by Kim Liggett →
By Wingèd Chair is a young adult coming-of-age fantasy romance novel which plays with the Robin Hood story and takes it in some interesting new directions. Set in a fantasy world that has both medieval European and Victorian steampunk elements, the backdrop to the story is the unjust rule of Duke John, who has somehow disposed of his elder brother and now rules the country with the aid of the Sheriff and his Peacekeepers, who … Continue reading By Wingèd Chair by Kendra Merritt →
