Adult Fiction

Audiobook: The Missed Connection

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by Tia Williams
Read by Khaya Fraites
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, talk of trauma and anxiety, and a few on-page sex scenes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

After a year off, Sasha thinks she’s ready to get back in the game. She’s a casting agent, and she’s been hired to cast a lipstick commercial for makeup brand Seraphina. Which means getting on a plane for a transatlantic flight. She’s not happy about this, but when she meets Seat F, she feels like there’s an instant connection. They spend the flight talking and holding hands… but when they get to Paris, she loses him. Which is why she goes back to her old contact – a former private detective Wes (I can’t remember his last name!) – to help her find Seat F. But, the connection between her and Wes may be too much to ignore.

I really enjoyed this one! It was good to have a grounded romance, well-written, with fleshed-out characters that kept my interest without me rolling my eyes! I think I had a few nitpick items, but honestly, it didn’t really matter. Williams handled this in a way that felt realistic while also adhering to the guidelines in romance, and everything in the book felt intentional. It was smart, it was fun, and I definitely will be reading more from her.

Murmuration

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by T.J. Klune
First sentence: “It happens the moment before he crosses into Amorea.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: November 17, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is some swearing, including multiple f-bombs, instances of domestic violence, and an on-screen sex scene. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Mike Frazier has lived in Amorea for several years. It’s a small town where he’s a bookstore owner. There’s a rhythm to the days: he goes to the diner for breakfast and to flirt with Sean, he runs the store where there’s a book group on Mondays, and he goes to poker night once a week. It’s a good life. But things are crumpling at the edges: there’s the tattoo on his wrist (which itches sometimes) that he can’t figure out, one of his friends – Oscar – disappears before his eyes, and there are these murmurations of starlings that he seems to be the only one who sees. The more he asks questions, the weirder the town seems. He’s determined to get to the bottom of this – while also falling more in love with Sean – but is he prepared for what he’ll find.

In the afterward, Klune mentions two things: One, this book is heavily influenced by The Twilight Zone. I was never huge into the show, but I have seen a bunch of episodes, and I can feel the influence the show had on this book. It really has that uncertainty surrounding it, the vague uneasiness that you can’t quite shake as you try to figure out with the main character just what is going on. And two, that he was afraid this book would be too weird to publish. It’s another one of his older ones, before House in the Cerulean Sea became big, and he thought it was weird. My response: I like weird Klune so much better than angry Klune. I loved this one. I loved the weirdness, I loved the relationship between Mike and Sean, and I am especially fascinated by the way it played out in the end. There’s a lot of things to discuss here, and I can’t wait for others to read it so I have someone to talk about it with.

It’s absolutely worth the read.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, volumes 7 and 8

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by Beth Brower
First sentence: “I’ve yet to come up with a suitable greeting for when I see Pierce this morning.” (volume 7) and “When I came down for breakfast this morning, I found Agnes happily fussing over the stove while Parian ate his breakfast at the table, a cup of steaming coffee at his side.” (volume 8)
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Volume 1, Volume 2 and 3, Volume 4 and 5, Volume 6 (which I didn’t review!)
Content: There’s not much, though it does touch on abuse and PTSD in volume 8. It’d be in the Fiction section if the bookstore carried it.

I was talking to my husband when I was reading volume 7, and he asked what was happening, and to be honest: I couldn’t sum up the plot. It’s about Emma and her daily adventures. And he said, “So, it’s a bit of a soap opera?” and I can’t get past that. Yes, it is a bit of a soap opera. Maybe in the way that Austen is a bit of a soap opera, but Austen was concise and didn’t draw things out. I found myself losing patience with volume 8 in particular – how many pages do we need to read about Emma and her adventures at Stonecrop? Yes, I did finish the series, but by the end – especially as we got Revelations about Pierce and Islington and Emma’s feelings – I wanted to know when it would end.

And maybe that’s the rub. I enjoy Emma and the variety of people she has collected around her, but there’s no end in sight. How long can I read about Aunt Eugenia Spencer’s desire to use Emma as a foil to marry off her daughter? How long can Hawkes be mysterious and enigmatic? How long is she going to draw out the Pierce-Emma-Islington triangle (I firmly believe that there is a triangle there). How long is she going to draw out Mary’s crush on her professor? What happened to Jack? It’s just. so. much.

So, yes, I finished it, and I didn’t hate it, but I think I’m a bit tired of Emma, and I’m glad there isn’t a volume 9 just yet.

Audiobook: The Starling House

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by Alix E. Harrow
Read by Natalie Naudus
Support your local independent bookstore: Buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is violence of the demon kind and abuse of the human kind. There is also swearing, including several f-bombs. It’s in the Science Fiction-Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Opal’s mom died when she was 15, and she was left to raise her younger brother. Twelve years later, she’s dropped out of high school, working, and barely scraping by with her brother. Who she wants to get out of this cursed town of Eden, Kentucky. To help her do that, she takes a job cleaning the Starling House, the creepy house in town that Opal is inexplicably drawn to. Once in there, her life gets complicated. She’s not supposed to like Arthur, the current Starling at the house, and some people are trying to get information about the house from her. Not to mention the weirdness of the house itself, and the dreams that aren’t going away. It’s a lot to deal with, especially since all she wants is to feel like she belongs.

I had no idea what this was about when I started it, and maybe that was the best way to do it. Every twist and turn of the story was a surprise, and in Harrow’s capable hands, it kept me wondering what would come next. Naudus’s narration added to that; she’s an exceptional narrator, one that I will gladly listen to more of. I had no idea how the book would resolve, and yet the ending was everything I wanted. It’s a creepy story, yes, but it’s also a story of finding home and forgiveness and being true to oneself.

Remarkable.

Rules for Aging and Larceny

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by Julia London
First sentence: “Frances Deluca was kicked out of the Pecan Springs Pickleball Club leage the week before the championships, which she considered a direct assault on her unbeaten record.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: June 30, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and talk of sex, but none actual. It will be in the Mystery section of the bookstore.

What Fran wants, three years after the death of her husband, is to go back to her glory days in the 1970s when she and her three best friends – whom she hasn’t talked to in decades – were a girl gang doing heists. They always targeted men who thought they were All That, and they got away with it. That is, until Edie betrayed them. But now, especially when Fran learns she has inoperable brain cancer (I know, it’s a bit much), all she wants is to do one last heist. So she rounds up Irene and Joan and convinces Edie to come along. They have the perfect mark, too: Edie’s granddaughter just lost a LOT of money in a Ponzi scheme run by an old college friend who just inherited a casino in Vegas. Sounds like a dream.

This was the perfect fluff book. Sure, there are themes of agism (they get away with a lot because no one thinks about older women) and dying and reconciliation and trust, but mostly it’s just a fun romp while these women get back at a man who took advantage of one of their own. And I adored it.

It was just a lot of fun to read; the writing is solid, there are some laugh-out-loud moments, and the characters were all interesting (love the guys they find to help in Vegas). It was a perfect summer read, and I can’t ask for more than that.

Christmas in Austenland

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by Shannon Hale
First sentence: “
Release date: September 22, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher
Others in the series: Austenland, Midnight in Austenland
Content: There is some mild swearing, and talk of abuse in a cult setting. It will be in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Perhaps I should start with this: when I learned that Hale had written another book set in Austenland, I was super excited. I love these books, I love the movie; it’s very much a comfort read/watch for me. What could be better, in this crap timeline we find ourselves in, than another silly romance set in a world where everything is mostly good and works out?

Reader, that is not what I got.

Kestrel is at Austenland because she won a dance contest (she danced the longest). She’s mostly trying to move beyond a 2-year-old breakup when her boyfriend left her high and dry. She wants to immerse herself in this world. Except, she can’t because of two reasons: Miss Charming’s ex-husband shows up and inserts himself into things (and he’s emotionally abusive), and Kestrel’s ex-boyfriend shows up, which throws Kestrel’s life into chaos.

Sounds delightful, yes? Except that it wasn’t. Partially because in alternating chapters, Hale gives Kestrel a tragic cult background that she has to escape from. It’s a completely different book, those chapters. And then, even worse, Hale spends too much time telling us how Kestrel feels. It was super annoying and just made for a boring book. I was so annoyed, I bailed halfway and then read the ending just to see. I am so disappointed. Maybe it’s because I expected too much from the book, built it up too much in my head.

But it’s not good. And that made me sad.

Audiobook: Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It

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by Brooke Averick
Read by the author
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a lot of swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and fade-to-black sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Phoebe Berman is coming up on her 30th birthday, and she’s feeling anxious about it. Mostly because she’s never been in a relationship or on a date or kissed anyone or (gasp) had sex. And this is a Problem To Be Solved. So, against the advice of her therapist and friends, she makes a How to Lose Your Virginity in Thirty Days list.

It’s as embarrassing as it sounds. (There were multiple times that I was driving and I had to resist the urge to cover my eyes while I was listening.) See, Phoebe has crippling anxiety (and she’s unmedicated! Someone in the group thread for our Romance book club said the title should be “Phoebe Berman Needs Lexapro”), especially around relationships. And that doesn’t bode well for her status as a virgin.

It’s super hard to read about a person who is struggling with crippling anxiety (though John Green does it in his books), especially when they’re super unlikable. And I did want to smack Phoebe over the head a lot. She’s the same age as my oldest, and my 20-year-old is less annoying/obsessive/whatever than Phoebe is. Granted, I do have a daughter who struggles with this same thing, and maybe it would be annoying to be in her head all the time, so I tried to have patience and compassion around Phoebe. But it was hard, especially since I could see what the solution was early on. It’s good to have representation, especially in the romance genre, but it was a hard one to get through it (this was my second attempt, after all – I bailed on reading the book).

Averick’s narration was good, but I’d have liked to hear this book read by an experienced narrator; it may have smoothed out a few of the rougher edges on the book.

It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t my favorite, either.

Vengeful

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by V. E. Schwab
First sentence: “The night Marcella died, she made her husband’s favorite dinner.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Vicious
Content: It is very violent, with a super high body count, and some of the deaths are quite violent. It’s also swearing, with multiple f-bombs. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Spoilers for Vicious, obviously.

Marcella Riggs is a powerful woman, married to a rising mob man. But when she discovers that he’s been cheating on her, she loses her temper. And then he kills her. She doesn’t die, though, but is turned into an EO – an ExtraOrdinary – with an unusually dangerous power. Eli Ever is still in custody at EON – the organization that was created to track and capture/neutralize EOs – but has become useful (by force? by choice?) to helping them track EOs (since that’s what he was doing before he was captured). Victor Vale has evaded death again, with the help of his sidekick/ward, Syd, who can raise things from the dead. The problem is that she didn’t do it quite right, and Victor’s power overwhelms his system and kills him for an increasingly larger length of time.

And then there’s June.

I found June to be the most interesting of the characters that Schwab introduces. We don’t know much about her: she’s a shapeshifter, she’s a hitwoman, and she takes a fascination/liking to Syd.

A lot happens, plot-wise: Marcella gets revenge and then collects June and another EO and decides to take over the mob and then the city. Eli’s dealing with EON and trying to get his freedom again. Victor spends most of the book trying (and failing) to find a cure. But in Schwab’s deft hands, all these moving parts coalesce into a grand finale that not only wraps this book up but also sets up a third (out this fall! Reading soon!) quite nicely.

Did I love it? No. But then, this series isn’t my favorite of Schwab’s. That said, it is compelling to read about people who are so morally questionable, and explore the idea of what if EO’s really existed and the consequences of their actions (which superhero movies never seem to do). It’s very Watchmen-like in its DNA, which, if you like that, then this is a solid read.

That said, I am curious to see how Schwab wraps this up, and I have the ARC of the third book, so I’ll be reading it.

Audiobook: The Girl with a Thousand Faces

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by Sunyi Dean
Read by Natalie Naudus
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a lot of violence, including some gruesome killings, as well as swearing, including multiple f-bombs. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Mercy Chan has spent the past 30 years since she washed up on the shores of Hong Kong being a ghost talker in the walled Kowloon neighborhood of Hong Kong. She’s made a bit of a reputation for herself and works for the largest gang in town, helping them keep the streets of Kowloon safe (ish). But a new demon has infiltrated the walls of the neighborhood, one that can’t be talked down to and one that is killing indiscriminately. As Mercy finds out more about the demon, she slowly comes to realize that maybe this one has more to do with her than she thought.

I was told by my SFF reading buddies at work (whom I trust to send good books my way) that this was excellent. And when I saw it on audio, I picked it up. First, that was an excellent choice. Nadus is a FANTASTIC reader, one of those that I will actively seek out books she reads. She added a level of atmosphere to this one that added to the creepiness and to the story, which really made it engrossing.

Second, I might have given up on this one if it weren’t for Nadus. It’s interesting but not really compelling until nearly through the second part, when it just hits a different level. The problem for me, though, was that the second part was written in the second person. Which I loathe. I really hate feeling like a book is talking to me rather than just reading a story, but listening to it on audio softened this annoyance. I get why Dean made that choice, but it still was mildly annoying. Even so, this was a fantastic ghost story – horror lite, which I’ve discovered I don’t hate – and one definitely worth listening to.

Wild Goose Chase

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by Sarah Adler
First sentence: “Dear Dr. Worthy – My name is John Otis Morse.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: July 28, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is some swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and on-page sex. It will be in the romance section of the bookstore.

As part-owner of an antique store, Cal knows his stuff. He’s been working there since the previous owner (who has since died) caught him attempting to steal, became a surrogate father, and completely changed his life. So when the other part-owner takes off for Italy (to get married!) and sends his niece, Annie, to help Cal out, Cal’s a bit put out. Especially since Annie comes in, all whimsy and charm, threatening to upend everything. It also doesn’t help that Cal has suddenly had an illegal taxidermied goose thrust on him. He just has to figure out where the goose came from, and what to do with Annie (NOT fall in love, ha), and all will be as it was.

There are flashbacks to the early 1900s and a woman ornithologist to explain where the goose came from, and that’s a sweet little story in itself. As for the main one, I liked it a lot. I don’t think I loved it – I may be a bit burned out on romance right now – but I had fun with it. I liked both Cal and Annie, and while the 3rd act breakup seemed a bit forced, it wasn’t terrible.

In all, it’s much like Adler’s other books: it’s fun, it’s sweet, and it’s not a bad read.