Adult Fiction

Heir of Illusion

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by Madeline Taylor
First sentence: “I cradle my lover’s head in my hands, longing to shatter it against the hardwood floor.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: To take from the content advisory at the beginning of the book, there is: violence, strong language, sexual content (on page), PTSD, mentions of self-harm, mentions of grooming, sucidial ideation, suffocation, drowning, emotional and physical abuse, murder, attempted sexual assualt, unwanted touching, abuse of power, and depictions of grief. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Ivy (actually Iverson, which is a stupid name) has spent the last 15 years as the special “pet” of the King of Illusion. She wears a collar that binds her to the king’s will – and if she defies him, he uses the collar to choke her. After 15 years, Ivy is fed up and wants to escape. All she has to do is find the sword that is paired with the collar and cut it off. Which she absolutely can do, except the God of Death, Thorne, has shown up demanding the sword and is in her way. A fractious meeting turns into a tenuous partnership, which turns into a budding romance. Will it hold, though, when the dust settles?

On the one hand, I liked this enough to finish it, which is more than I can say for the last two Romantasies that I read for book group. The world-building was intriguing enough to keep me interested, and I liked that Ivy was pushing and pulling against the “norm” of her world. That said, Taylor isn’t a great writer, and this book could have easily been 100 pages shorter. She repeats herself often, and uses the same descriptive words over and over again. Yes, we know Thorne is often angry and looms. Yes, we know Ivy can turn invisible. Yes, we know the king is a bad man. Do you need to tell us every single chapter?

I don’t know if I’m curious enough to read the sequel, but I didn’t outright hate this one.

Once and Again

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by Rebecca Serle
First sentence:”I landed, he texts me, and I feel the ground underneath my feet once again.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is swearing and some on-page but vague sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Lauren is at a crossroads. Her husband, Leo is a filmmaker and has a job opportunity in New York. So Lauren moves back into her childhood home, on the beach, with surfing and her ex-boyfriend Stone. It’s a glorious summer. But, the women in Lauren’s family have this gift to turn back time, to re-do one event. Her mother used it to save her father’s life when Lauren was 15. And when Lauren makes an earth-shattering mistake, it’s up to her to decide what to do with her chance.

Firt off: this is NOT a romance. There is nothing about it that is romance-y at all. It’s a love story, sure, in the sense that Nicholas Sparks books are a love story. It’s a family drama. It is not, on any level, a romance. And with that said, although I have lliked Serle’s books in the past, I didn’t enjoy this one. Well, that’s not true. I liked it enough to finish it, but I was dissatisfied with the ending, and I felt unfulfilled by the book as a whole. Perhaps it was because I went in expecting a romance and didn’t get that, or maybe it was just not what I was in the mood for. Either way, this was a miss for me.

Audiobook: Pole Position

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by Rebecca J Caffrey
Read by Joshua Chase & James Joseph
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen on Libro.fm
Content: There’s a lot of swearing, including many f-bombs. There’s talk of sex and on-page sex scenes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Are we here for gay sports books? Yes. Yes, we are.

Kian Walker is the reigning F1 World Champion, and he has so much going for him. He’s methodical, prepared, focused, and the best in the world. Harper James is the exact opposite. A talented driver, but a party boy – he’s determined to never let anyone close enough to find out what demons he’s chasing. So when he ends up in the second driver position with Kian, sparks fly. And it doesn’t help that they feel this…. attraction. It’s not going to be an easy season for either of them.

I picked this up – I’ve had it kicking around for a while – because F1 started up again! So why not celebrate with a little gay F1 romance? It’s not deep, though they deal with abandonment issues and the trauma from bad parents, as well as the death of a parent. I did like the F1 references- sure, the teams were made up, but I think Caffrey captured the intensity of the sport and the way the drivers make decisions on and off the track. It’s probably not entirely accurate, but for a mid-level fan like me, it fit the bill. And I did like Kian and Harper’s relationship. I liked the push and pull and the way they eventually came to trust one another. And the narrators kept me engaged when the plot wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.

So, was it great? No. But it was a lot of fun, which was excatly what I was looking for.

Audio book: French Windows

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by Antoine Laurain
Read by Alex Wyndam
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen on Libro.fm
Content: There is mention of infidelity and murder, and there’s some mild swearing. It’s in the Fiction section of the bookstore.

Doctor Faber is a pretty run-of-the-mill psychologist. No remarkable clients, nothing remarkable to speak of. That is, until Nathalia Guitry comes into his office, saying that she has lost her artistic drive ever since she photographed a murder. Faber suggests an unorthodox treatment: why doesn’t she tell the stories of the people in the apartment building where the murder took place, and she can work out what’s bothering her. There’s a reclusive cartoonist, a social media influencer, and on and on as Nathalia spins her stories.

This is all about the power of fiction. Are Nathalia’s stories true? Maybe. Maybe there are some elements that are. But mostly, she’s getting at the heart of what makes people do the things they do. There’s also a twist that I kind of saw coming. Even so, it felt satisfying. Wyndam was a good narrator as well, though I kind of struggled to figure out when he was in “story mode” and when he was in “Doctor Faber narration” mode. That said, it was a short book, and an intriguing one at that.

The Book Witch

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by Meg Shaffer
First sentence: “All stories are love stories if you love stories.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: April 7, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher
Content: There’s some mild swearing, some mild violence, and off-page sex. It will be in the Fiction section of the bookstore.

Rainy March is a Book Witch – she pops into books to save them from the Burners, the people who want to stop the stories from existing. It’s a great job – who wouldn’t want to pop into the worlds that books have created and spend time there? But then Rainy’s grandfather goes missing, and she gets the help of a fictional detective to help find him. That’s the base plot, though it’s winds and weaves more than that. The point of the book is a love of books and reading and the way that books can help people. But it’s also about the joy of stories and reading.

Of course, I loved this one. A bookish book about books that gets meta? I’m totally in. I thought this was fun, the characters were charming and delightful (Duke!), and I’m a sucker for a book where the characters get to physically experience being in books. I did think Shaffer kind of struggled with the ending – it kind of faded away rather than sticking the landing, but that’s a small quibble in an otherwise delightful reading experience.

And Now, Back to You

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by B. K. Borison
First sentence: “‘Do you believe in fate?'”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: First-Time Caller
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is mention of neglectful parents, several f-bombs, and on-page sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Jackson is a radio meteorologist, and would like it to stay that way. He likes reporting the weather; it’s simple, and it’s predictable. It’s what he wants out of life. Delilah, on the other hand, is anything but predictable. The meteorologist for the TV station, what she really wants is to be taken seriously. Except her boss keeps sending her on these silly assignments, which she tries to make the best of. Then, when a huge storm heads towards Baltimore, their bosses conspire together: Jackson and Delilah are going to head to the mountains to report on the storm. They are polar opposites, so it’s absolutely not going to work. Except, sometimes opposites attract, right?

Borison continues to delight me. I loved everything about Jackson and Delilah, from their semi-tragic backstories (bad moms all around), to Jackson’s need to keep everything in order and Delilah’s determination to keep a positive attitude. It’s grumpy-sunshine with one bed mixed in, and I thought it was delightful. There wasn’t really a third-act breakup, but they did have some challenges to get over. I loved it all.

Charming, fun, and an utterly delightful romance!

Audiobook: The Fundamentals of Being a Good Girl

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by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone
Read by Connor Crais, Victoria Connolly & Teddy Hamilton
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There was swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and lots of explicit on-page sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Maddie is coming off a long-term relationship that has left her broke and unsure of her direction in life. So when she lands a job as an adjunct lecturer at the university in Mount Astra, Kansas, she jumps at the chance. Unfortunately, adjuncting doesn’t quite pay enough so she picks up a side job as a nanny to supplement her income.

Bram has been divorced for five years and has been raising his three girls with his ex-wife. Things are going well enough until his ex-wife gets a grant to study a glacier in Alaska for two months. It’s impossible with his job as a science professor at the university to handle all the childcare duties, so he hires a nanny.

He just wasn’t supposed to be so attracted to her (or she to him).

This was a mix for me. On the one hand, the characters kept feeling like they were bad for wanting this relationship (she is 26 and he is 35, and they actually had a one-night stand before she went to work for him), like it was some sort of terrible kink. It’s not. And that bugged me. As did the use of the word brat. (As in “she’s so bratty” or “the brat”). It was also borderline too much sex, not enough plot, but it managed to save itself in the end. I did like Maddie’s journey to figure out what she wanted – it felt realistic after coming out of a long-term relationship where she changed herself for the guy. And I appreciated that she was comfortable in her body, and the body-positive aspects of the story. I did love the side characters (except for Joey Kemp,who was just annoying and took up too much space in the book), and wouldn’t mind spending more time with them. I didn’t hate the book, but I didn’t love it either.

Our Sister’s Keeper

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by Jasmine Holmes
First sentence: “Lucas Fulton was Marah’s least favorite client.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: June 9, 2026
Content: There is a lot of Black trauma in this one – lynchings, abuse, racism, general violence – and a lot of violence against women, both overt and passive. It will be in the Horror section of the bookstore.

On the surface, East Cobb, Mississippi, sounds like heaven. It’s a Black town where everything is perfect: men have good jobs, there are good homes, and best of all, there isn’t any violence. It should be the perfect place for newlyweds Thea and Kidd Elliott to make their home. Except, once they get there, Thea starts to realize that not everything is as it seems. There is a patriarchal order that she is uncomfortable with; everyone in town, both men and women alike, looks down on her for wanting to be like Ida Wells and make a living writing and reporting. She’s supposed to be supporting her husband and having babies, right? And then, when she starts to see and hear things – women screaming, lynchings, echoes of crimes past – the women in town start gaslighting her: there are no ghosts. There isn’t anything wrong. You’re just going crazy, dear.

Marah, on the other hand, is trapped as a carrier in East Cobb – a woman to takes away, literally, the burdens of the men in town. She – and the other carriers – are “experiments” of a white doctor, and of the Black mistress who runs the house. Then, after a couple of the girls die under suspicious circumstances, Marah starts trying to figure out how she got to be a carrier and how to break out of the prison she is in.

There was so much anger baked into this book. Anger at the way Black people are treated. Anger at the way women are treated. But there is also a lot of hope: the community of Black women who band together (instead of hiding and giving into the patriarchy) is Strong, and not only are they survivors, they will Flourish despite all that has been done to them. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I felt like I was witnessing the anger of Black women and the retribution that will (eventually) come.

I was thinking when I started that this would be Mexican Gothic-like, but as I went on, I found it was less Horror and more speculative fiction. The “magic” of the carriers was never really explained, which I didn’t mind, but I also wasn’t terrified by it all. It’s a good work of historical fiction, and I appreciated looking at what an all-black town could be like. It’s also a warning, though: if we don’t heal from the past, there is no way to have a good future.

All this to say: it wasn’t what I expected, but I am glad I read it.

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.