Adult Fiction

The Favorites

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by Layne Fargo
First sentence: “Today is the tenth anniversary of the worst day of my life.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher ages ago.
Content: There is swearing (including multiple f-bombs), allusions to sex (but none actual), violence (mostly off-page), and lots and lots of Drama. It’s in the Fiction section of the bookstore.

Katarina Shaw is driven to skate. It’s all she’s wanted to do since she saw Sheila Lin win gold at Calgary in 1988. She didn’t have money, so she worked at the ice rink to pay for her lessons. And then Heath Rocha came into her life. He was a foster kid, and there was an immediate attraction (of sorts; they were 10). Kat taught Heath to skate, and her drive kept them going. Eventually, they made it to LA to skate at Sheila Lin’s academy, and then the Drama starts. We follow Kat and Heath’s story through their ups and downs, breakups and fights, through wins and losses, to the bitter end.

I was telling one of my coworkers that I was reading this, and she mentioned that she met the author at a Heartland Fall Forum. One of the inspirations (aside from being obsessed with ice dancing) was Wuthering Heights, and now that she mentioned it, I can’t unsee it. This book is a Drama-filled train wreck with dead parents and abusive older brothers, with backstabbing friends and Russian mobs. It’s got it all. And I was absolutely here for it.

In retrospect, I think I would have really enjoyed listening to this one, especially if it’s a full cast, because it does have a Daisy Jones and the Six feel to it, just with competitive ice dancing instead of music. Even so, I did find this to be ridiculously fun – maybe it’s because the Olympics is on right now, and I’m in the mood for ice skating drama – but I ate it up from the first page on. Fargo knows how to capture the drama of passion and of drive, and even though none of the characters were especially sympathetic (well, I did like Garrett), they were compelling and intriguing enough to keep me reading.

It was definitely an entertaining read.


Audiobook: The Wedding Date

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by Jasmine Guillory
Read by Janina Edwards
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some swearing, including a few f-bombs, and fade-to-black sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Drew doesn’t want to go to his ex-girlfriend’s wedding by himself, so when he meets Alexa (in the elevator), and there’s instant chemistry, he convinces her to go to the wedding with him. Where he accidentally calls her his “girlfriend”. But, they realize there’s something there and start a long-distance (well, LA to San Francisco) relationship of sorts. As their relationship goes on, though, they wonder if it could be something more.If only they weren’t so far away. If only one of them could say how they feel.

This was a fun romance. Nothing too deep – Alexa has a side project trying to get an arts program for troubled kids set up in Berkley – but it was fun. I didn’t like Drew – he was (especially in his internal narration) very reluctant to commit, and was so very often misunderstanding Alexa’s motivations. It was a trope, yes, but his end of it really annoyed me. The best thing, I think, was that these characters’ lives felt real. They ate. They went to the store. They had normal-sounding conversations. It was nice.

I enjoyed it enough that I think I’ll give another one of Guillory’s a try.

Fishbone Cinderella

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by Elizabeth Lim
First sentence: “Marigold Yuen used to think she had a knack for fixing things.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: July 28, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is abuse, including physical, and some swearing, including a few f-bombs. It will be in the Fiction section.

Yut Ying was the youngest of four children – her three older brothers were obviously more important than her – in 1940s China during the occupation. She was living in a poor village until her mother sent her to live with her father and his second wife in Hong Kong. There she was treated as a servant, cooking and cleaning for the family instead of getting the education her father promised. But, after a bad relationship, she married the first man who could take her to America, eventually to Chinatown in San Francisco, where she raised her three daughters. The catch with all this: the women in Yut Ying’s family are cursed. Yut Ying herself can disappear, and her daughter Marigold can catch snatches of memory when she touches people. They end up going back to Hong Kong to try to break the curse, so they can all live without fear.

That summary doesn’t really do it justice. It’s a family drama, with the conflicts between mothers and daughters, and between siblings, mostly sisters, and it’s been a long time since I’ve read one of those. While the magic is a central plot point, it’s not really magic in the fantasy sense of the word, which is surprising since Lim is known for her sweeping YA fantasies. It’s a quiet book, one in which you care about the characters, even though not much happens in the plot. I really enjoyed it, but as I’m sitting here writing about it, I find I don’t have much to say. It’s a good book, one that I thoroughly enjoyed, but can’t seem to find anything to say about.

Audiobook: Red City

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by Marie Lu
Read by André Santana, Eunice Wong, Natalie Naudus & Sid Sagar
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a lot of violence, much of it graphic. There is also sexual assault, on-page sex, and lots of swearing, including many f-bombs. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Growing up the child of a strict single mother, Sam wanted more for her life. She is smart – she has a perfect memory – and she had a promising future. That is, until her mom was in an accidental fire at the restaurant she worked at. Then, Sam turned to the syndicates – the organizations that control the drug Sand, and the magic in this alternate reality. She learns to be an alchemist and falls deep into this dangerous world.

Ari, on the other hand, was brought to Angel City from his home in India, recruited because of the strength of his charisma, his soul, to be a part of Luminos, one of the syndicates. He’s taught and trained since he was 10 to be a bioalchemist, someone who can persuade pretty much anyone of anything.

Ari and Sam were friends growing up, unaware of their involvement in rival syndicates, until they re-meet as adults, on the opposite side of a brewing war.

I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I really enjoyed this one. I was talking to K about the book and describing how they used alchemy as the magic system, and she was like “Oh, like Full Metal Alchemist”? And yes, exactly like that. Except mashed with the Godfather, and you have a good sense of this. But I liked the characters, I appreciated the way Lu developed the world that she set the story in, and I didn’t even mind the ending – there is still an opening for another book (hopefully, only a duology) but the story of this one is wrapped up. I loved the audio version; the narrators were amazing, capturing the emotion of the book as well as the action. I probably would have liked reading this, but I really enjoyed it on audio. Perhaps I’m being overly generous to this because I was listening to it while reading Spark of the Everflame, and it was just refreshing to have good worldbuilding and a unique, fully developed magic system.

I’ll definitely be on the lookout for the sequel to this one.

Spark of the Everflame

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by Penn Cole
First sentence: “Whether it was a blessing or a curse is, even now, the subject of considerable debate.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There are a couple of on-page sex scenes and a lot of violence. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Diem’s mother has disappeared, which puts Diem – a mortal in the world of the half-god Descended – in a quandary. Should she take over her mother’s duties serving the Descended in the castle city to save the deal that gives her younger brother an education? Should she go looking for her mother? Should she join the rebellion trying to oust/kill the Descended and take over the realms? Do we even care?

Actually, it’s that last question that kept coming up. Why should I care about Diem’s struggles? Why should I care that mortals are living in poverty while the Descended live in luxury? Is this about race? Class? Why should I care that there’s a rebellion? Why should I care that Prince Luther – one of the Descended – is attracted to Diem? Why should I care about Deim and Henri’s relationship? Why am I still reading this book?

So, I bailed. I got further than I expected – about 2/3 of the way through – and then I just skipped around until I figured out what was going on. This one was not for me.

Audiobook: Fever Beach

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by Carl Hiaasen
Read by Will Damron
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a LOT of swearing, including many, many f-bombs. There is also talk of sex toys. It’s in the Mystery section of the bookstore.

Dale Figgo got kicked out of the Proud Boys, and so he started his own right-wing, white supremacist group. Vida Morales, off of a bad divorce, is renting a room from Dale (unfortunately) and working for the (corrupt) Mink Foundation. She bumps into environmental activist Twilly Spree and somehow they get involved in trying to stop Figgo and his (very stupid) men from doing the bidding of a (corrupt and stupid) congressman to rig an election.

I think that about sums up the plot. This wasn’t a deep book, but it was an entertaining one. We listened to it on a long drive, and it had both of us cracking up at points. Hiaasen has NO respect for the Proud Boy-type or the corrupt congressman (as he should), dragging them as often as he possibly could. Vida and Twilly were both entertaining characters, with small scenes that just had us laughing. It’s all very Florida Man, and a very silly story.

So, not deep or probably worth reading, but I had a good time with it.

Canon

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by Paige Lewis
First sentence: “On the day God arrived with His Big Mission, He found Yara preparing to leap, fully clothed, into the Spring River.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: May 19, 2026
Content: There is reference to sexual assault, some swearing, including f-bombs, and lots of violence. It will be in the Fiction section of the bookstore.

This is a hard one to describe. It’s an Epic Story, the story of a Final Battle and a Quest to stop it, of Discovery and of God and Humanity. There is a plot: there’s a Bad Guy and Yara is tasked by God to kill him. They go on a journey to get there – and the journey is the point. There is also a Prophet, Adrena, who wants to be a part of the Battle and goes on her own Journey to reach the end.

It’s a Lot of a book. I really liked it at first – there’s a lot of humor (the whale named HOWBIG is quite amusing) and just a lot of the over-the-top-ness of it all. But, I think this is meant to be read quickly (and it goes fast, despite its length), because I put it down for a couple of days, and it lost momentum. I thought it kind of lost direction near the end (but it may be that I missed the satire of it all); it wasn’t as satisfying as I was hoping it would be.

That said, it was unlike anything I’ve ever read before, and I think Lewis is a brilliant writer. It’s worth reading for the experience of reading it.

Heated Rivalry

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by Rachel Reid
First sentence: “Shane Holland was as close to losing it as he ever allowed himself to get.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: Oh. So much sex. So. Much. Every chapter, on page, lots and lots of sex. All the spice. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Shane Hollander is one of the best hockey players in the NHL. The only player who even comes close is Ilya Rozanov, who has been Shane’s nemesis since their rookie year. He has also, for better or worse, been Shane’s obsession. And his secret lover. What happens when their secret threatens to get out? Will it ruin their careers? Can they move their relationship into something more? (Do we care?)

Okay, yes, I picked this up because of the TV show and everyone is talking about it and I got curious. I am not proud of this decision. It is, objectively, by many measures (one being the couple of times they repeated entire paragraphs on the same page…) not a good book. This writing will not win awards. The chapters (for more than half of the book!) went hockey, sex, shame. We’re playing hockey against each other; we’re so angry and aroused. We have sex. But it’s bad to have sex with another man, we feel ashamed. For more than 100 pages. And yet, I kept reading.

Why? No idea. Except that I was still curious, and it wasn’t bad enough (or maybe it was the right kind of bad?) for me to put down. And the character development did happen somewhat in the second half of the book. Shane got a clue about his sexuality. Ilya stopped being Tough Russian Guy all the time. It’s never going to make my best-of list, and I do feel less intelligent for having read it, but I have to admit: my curiosity about the gay hockey thing is satiated.

Thistlemarsh

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by Moorea Corrigan
First sentence: “The war did not bring the Faeries back to England.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: April 21, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is talk of war, some mild swearing, exactly one (well-placed) f-bomb. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

It’s after World War I, and Mouse is returning home to England because her uncle – Lord Dewhurst – has died and reluctantly left his Faerie-blessed house, Thistlemarsh Manor, to her. Only because his son was killed in the war, and her brother, the next-logical heir, is incapacitated with PTSD, and doesn’t recognize his surroundings. Mouse is reluctant to take on the taste of being Lady of the manor, especially after she hears her uncle’s conditions: restore the house and grounds to their former glory in one month (or get married), or the house goes to a distant (and despicable) cousin. It is an impossible task, except that Mouse is offered help by the faerie Thornwood. It’s tricky to bargain with a faerie, but Mouse is desperate. The question is: what will she uncover?

On the one hand: I haven’t read a sweeping faerie story like this in a long time. It reminded me of books I’d read 15-20 years ago (was that just the early 2000s?), where the fae were cruel, but not unreasonable. Where deals could be made between the fae and humans, and kindness would win out in the end. It has a luxury to it – it only takes place over a month, and yet the pace is slow enough to allow the reader to luxuriate in the setting. I liked Mouse as a character (even though I have quibbles with the ending; but I suppose a human woman couldn’t take on the fae all alone, no matter how smart she is). I just didn’t love the writing. It was basic. Pedantic. Maybe it’s because I just finished A River Has Roots (also a faerie story), where the writing was so lovely, that I felt its lack. That said, while I didn’t utterly love it, I liked it enough to finish, and if you’re looking for a decent faerie story, this is a good one to read.

Audiobook: The River Has Roots

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by Amal El-Mohtar
Read by Gem Carmella
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a murder, and some suggested abuse. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Esther and Isabella are sisters, and as Hawthornes, their job is to sing to the willows, to enhance their magic. They are happy, except Esther is more interested in Faeire, and has picked up a lover – Ren – from there. That is all fine and good, except a local man has his sights on Esther, and when she chooses Ren over him, there is consequences.

One of my co-workers mentioned in passing, when this one came out, that it was a delightful experience on audio, and I remember picking it up after she mentioned that. I needed something short to read on our way home from Wisconsin, and downloaded this just to see.

Oh, it was delightful. Not just the story – I love a feminist fairy tale with queer undertones! – but the performance of it was stellar. The use of sound and music enhances the story and makes the story that much better. And the short story that follows was just as engaging. I’m definitely a fan of El-Mohtar’s work now, and I know I need to pick up This is How You Lose the Time War now.

Highly recommended.