Adult Fiction

The Bloodless Prince

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by Charlotte Bond
First sentence: “When the universe was young and dark, light existed inside an egg.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: October 29, 2024
Others in the series: The Fireborne Blade
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Content: There is some violence. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Spoilers for the first, obviously.

Maddileh and Saralene have won the blade, killed the dragon, cheated death, and have gone on with their lives. Saralene is High Mage with Maddileh as her Champion. Except all is not well: both Maddileh and Saralene keep having disturbing dreams and they are becoming increasingly intrusive. Also: maybe the dragon is not actually dead. And: maybe the Tales of Old are not just stories, but actually true, and they need to travel to the underworld to bargain with the Bloodless Princes for their lives.

Much like the first, this slim novel packs a punch. There is so much world-building in so few words, it’s breathtaking. I love the dragon in the book – it’s different from the first in this duology and it fits with what we already know and expands upon it. Bond is an incredibly talented writer, both with her plotting and characterizations. I liked how the romance was understated until it wasn’t, how Bond never let anything get overdone, and how both Maddileh and Saralene stand on their own and know how to work together. It’s quite a brilliant little book.

All this to say: I’m probably going to read whatever Bond decides to write.

Audiobook: The Seventh Veil of Salome

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by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia
Read by Caitlin Kelly, Atlanta Amado, Victoria Villarreal, Arthur Morey, Andrew Eiden, Kristen DiMercurio, Frankie Corzo, Lauren Fortgang, Javier Prusky, Fred Sanders, Lee Osorio & Cassandra Campbell
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is violence, sexual harassment, racist slurs, and swearing, including a few f-bombs. It’s in the fiction section of the bookstore.

It’s 1955 and Hollywood is all-in on big-budget Biblical films. In this case, the story of Salome, the woman who danced for Herod and asked for John the Baptist’s head on a platter. The problem the director is having, though, is finding the right woman to play the title character. Enter Vera Larios, a newbie from Mexico City. She’s the perfect person, except…. she won’t entertain the advances of the playboy leading man. And she “took the role” from another aspiring actress. (And she also “took” the aspiring actress’s boyfriend.) And, worst of all: she’s Mexican.

One of the things we have said about Moreno-Garcia at the store is that she doesn’t write the same book twice. A big, sweeping historical drama was not really on my bingo card for her, but that’s not to say she didn’t do it well. It’s very character-driven, especially the three female characters: Vera, of course; but also Nancy (the aspiring – and failing – actress); and Salome herself. At first, I thought the Salome chapters were a bit weird, but as the book went on, I saw the parallels between that story and the one playing out around the movie. I ended up thinking about halfway through that this was a book about the ways women use their sexuality to gain power, and maybe that’s so. I’m not entirely sure, though, now that I’m done.

The full cast recording was really well done, however. There are no chapters, just narratives by various people – from other cast members to the director, a screenwriter, and other Hollywood notables – and the full cast helped distinguish that. I did wonder why most of the narratives were in first-person, kind of documentary-style, but the Nancy, Vera, and Salome sections were in third-person. Again, it was a choice, and while I did not mind it, I was a bit put off initially.

I am glad I read it, though, even if it’s not my usual fare.

Audiobook: A Sorceress Comes to Call

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by T. Kingfisher
Read by Eliza Foss & Jennifer Pickens
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some mild swearing, and instances of child abuse. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Cordelia’s mother is… not great. She’s a sorceress who has always gotten everything she wanted by any means possible. When Cordelia did anything her mother didn’t like, she just made Cordelia “obedient” – basically taking over her body and controlling it. Now that Cordelia is 14, though, her mother has decided they need to move on to bigger and better things – and has her sights set on a squire to marry.

Hester is that squire’s brother, and she sees Cordelia’s mother as Doom, and is going to do everything she can to stop it.

That’s the plot in a nutshell, but like other of Kingfisher’s books, the beauty of it is not in the plot. It’s in the characters and in the little things that just make her books wonderful. It’s in the portrayals of the women in all their complexity – Hester is insecure about being older and having a cranky knee (I can relate!); Cordelia is traumatized and unsure of herself but grows immensely throughout the book. It’s in the sly asides (Penelope! Imogene!), and in the way the magic is used throughout the book. Additionally, the narrators were just perfect for the characters – it alternates between Cordelia and Hester – and I found myself not wanting to stop listening.

In short, this book stole my heart, and I love that it did.

I’ll Have What He’s Having

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by Adib Khorram
First sentence: “Farzan was crying.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: August 27, 2024
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is on-page sex, as well as lots of swearing, including multiple f-bombs. It will be in the romance section of the bookstore.

Farzan is stressed that he’s the family screw-up. He’s 37, single, and the guy he thought he was dating just broke up with him. He’s hopeless. So, he heads to a local restaurant to drown his sorrows in wine and french fries where he meets their very attractive sommelier, David.

David’s back in Kansas City studying for his master sommelier test. He doesn’t want relationships, but when he sees Farzan, he’s instantly attracted. After an evening of flirting (there’s a bit of mistaken identity in there as well), they have a one-night stand. But that one-night stand turns into something more… and suddenly David and Farzan are questioning what their dreams and plans really are.

On the one hand, this was a very sweet story. I liked Farzan and his family and friends, and their relationships with each other. I liked that Khorram writes about older(ish) men, who aren’t super successful or super fit. The book is incredibly body-positive, and I liked how David and Farzan are with each other. I liked the way it’s very centered in Kansas City; I felt like this was very much a “Kansas City is a really cool city and cool things happen here” kind of book, which I didn’t mind at all.

On the other hand, I just didn’t find it sexy. I did appreciate that there was consensual gay sex (a lot of it), which I think is important, but I just didn’t get the chemistry between David and Farzan at all. I wanted to; I liked both of the characters, but I just didn’t feel it between them. (I might just be me, honestly.) This made the book – since the sex was a huge part of the book – less than I wanted it to be.

Is it bad? I don’t think it’s for everyone, but I am glad that it’s out there.

Audiobook: The Faculty Lounge

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by Jennifer Mathieu
Read by Lisa Flanagan
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some swearing, including a few f-bombs. It’s in the adult fiction section of the bookstore.

It starts as a mostly typical year at Baldwin High School in Houston, TX, until a beloved former English teacher (and current substitute) dies in a classroom (on his free period). That sets off a chain of events that includes a misstep of an ash scattering, parent complaints, pregnant teenagers, and inter-department romances. There’s not really an over-arching plot; it’s a series of vignets, each chapter about a different person in the high school from the principal to a janitor, about their experiences over the course of a school year, the ups and downs, the ways in which politics effect the school day, and the inner lives of teachers.

I really liked this one, especially on audio. It’s mostly just a character study, but Mathieu is a good enough writer to pull it off. And Flanagan was an excellent narrator, giving life to the different characters. I know Mathieu is (was? at least when she came to Wichita for an event, she was) a high school English teacher, and so she knows the ropes, and it comes across in this book. It’s entertaining and fun to listen to, and I didn’t mind that there really isn’t a plot. I liked learning about the characters, the way the chapters built upon each other, the way it felt like I was sitting with friends or co-workers to learn about their lives and their experiences teaching.

Definitely a fun read.

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret

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by Benjamin Stevenson
First sentence: “There are quite a few differences between an Australian Christmas and the stereotypical Northern Hemisphere fare seen in most books and movies.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, Everyone On This Train is Suspect
Release date: October 22, 2024
Content: There are murders, of course. It will be in the Christmas book section of the bookstore.

Ern Cunningham is back, and this time he needs to exonerate his ex-wife from the murder of her boyfriend. The problem is that she woke up covered in his blood, with no memory of how that happened. So, Ern heads to Australia’s Blue Hills and the Christmas magic show in order to figure out the murder.

Of course, there are twists and turns, and Stevenson’s trademark humor (Ern even learns the true meaning of Christmas… but it’s not what you think). The book is laid out like an advent calendar (read one chapter a day!), with references to Christmas specials and fair play mysteries. All the clues are there, if you can figure out how to put them together (no surprise: I didn’t). It was fun and entertaining, and a delightful addition to this series.

Slow Dance

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by Rainbow Rowell
First sentence: “The wedding invitation came, and Shiloh said yes, of course she’d be there.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There was swearing, including several f-bombs, as well as on-page sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

In high school, it was always Shiloh-and-Cary-and-Mike. They were always together, and everyone assumed that Shiloh and Cary were together. But they weren’t. They were just friends. And now, 14 years after they last saw each other, after Shiloh has been married and divorced and had two kids, Cary is back in her life. They re-met at Mike’s second marriage, back in Omaha – Shiloh never left, actually – and tried to pick up where they left off. There were some false starts and miscommunication, but in the end, and despite everything else going on in their lives, it was just too good – too right – to be back in each other’s orbit again.

On the one hand, I really enjoyed this. I connected with the characters — it’s set in 2006, when they were 33 (I was 34 that year) — and the situations they found themselves in. I liked Shiloh and Carey, even when they weren’t communicating well, or Shiloh was acting anxious, or just everything. On the other hand, this was very slow and very mundane. There wasn’t a lot of what a reader would expect out of a romance in it. Even a second-chance one. There was no third-act fallout, there was very little conflict or tension. And while I liked the thoughtful, reflective quality of a book, it’s not really what readers have come to expect out of something billed as romance.

Is this a book for everyone? Probably not. But I enjoyed it.

Audiobook: That Prince is Mine

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by Jayci Lee
Read by Olivia Song
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a lot of on-page, somewhat explicit sex as well as swearing, including many f-bombs. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Emma Yoon only wants two things to be happy: to open her culinary school and to have her godmother, a Korean matchmaker, arrange a marriage for her. She doesn’t believe in love matches – her parents had one that failed spectacularly – and she trusts that her godmother will find someone perfect for her. On the other hand, is Prince Michele Chevalier – the crown prince of some small European country – doesn’t want an arranged marriage, and so he’s in LA as a visiting professor to find someone to fall in love with so he can take her home and live happily ever after.

Of course, they have a meet-cute and of course, they fall in love despite Emma’s misgivings.

It’s a cute enough book, and the narrator does a decent job, but I found it annoying. Mostly because it was so repetitive. Lee lays out at the beginning that Emma doesn’t want a love match, that she needs to use her godmother’s matchmaking services because only Emma can help save her business and that Michele needs to find someone that he’s Compatible with and can Love Forever. That’s all fine and good. The problem is that Lee needs to tell us these facts Every. Single. Chapter. It got really old really fast. And, honestly, while I was entertained by the book, that one issue kind of dampened my enjoyment. I honestly didn’t feel any chemistry between the main characters, and it all just kind of fell flat.

I wanted to enjoy this one a lot more than I actually did, which is too bad.

Audiobook The Unwedding

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by Ally Condie
Read by Christine Lakin
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some mild swearing and mention of murders. It’s in the mystery section of the bookstore.

The life Ellory thought she had has completely fallen apart. Her husband filed for divorce after almost 20 years of marriage, and nothing has been right since. They had planned on going to a resort in Big Sur for their anniversary, but it’s non-refundable, so Ellory finds herself there alone. There’s a wedding scheduled for the weekend, and when Ellory finds the groom dead in the resort pool, things turn dark. Add to that, a rainstorm and a mudslide trapping all the guests there, and then another guest is murdered, things become desperate. The question is whether they can figure out who the murderer is before they strike again.

I wanted to like this one so much more than I actually did. My biggest problem? Ellory was so sad. So much sad. All the sad. Every chance she got she was “I miss my husband” and “I miss my kids” and “oh noes, my life is worthless now”. All of which I get: her divorce came out of the blue and she is mourning it, but in what has been billed as a thriller, it’s very distracting. Which, also: this really isn’t a thriller. I never felt like anyone’s life was truly in jeopardy, and while Ellory was trying to figure the mystery out, she didn’t actually solve it (but she also kind of did?). I was also hoping for a grand sense of place – we didn’t get to Big Sur on our recent California vaction, but I wanted to feel like I was there. But, no. I finished this one because I kept hoping it would get better (it didn’t) and the narrator kept me engaged (she was quite excellent).

I’m sure Condie still has some good stories left in her, but this one wasn’t it. Disappointing.

Brightly Shining

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by Ingvild Rishøi (Author,  Caroline Waight (Translator)
First sentence: “Sometimes I think about Toyen.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: November 19, 2024
Content: There are four instances of the f-bomb, and some very bad parenting. It will be in the Christmas section of the bookstore.

Melissa and Ronja’s father can’t seem to hold a job. When he’s sober, things are going well, but all too often, he falls off the wagon and into the bottle again. This time, after he gets a job at a Christmas tree lot and ends up drinking again, Melissa decides to take matters into her own hands. She bargains with the miserly lot owner to take on her father’s job for him (and work off the big advance he took). That leaves Ronja alone, but she’s unhappy that way. So, she joins Melissa at the lot. Everything goes well… until it doesn’t.

Much like the Hans Christian Andersen tale “The Little Match Girl”, this one is hopelessly sad. It’s a reminder that not everyone gets magical Christmases and that there are those for whom the holiday is not wonderful. (And that some of those people are children.) There are brief moments of hope, and Ronja narrating the book helps, but it’s really just… sad.

The writing is gorgeous, though, and Rishoi knows how to be evocative. But, mostly, this was a bleak Christmas tale. Maybe it’s a reminder to be thankful you’re not spending your Christmas Eve under a tree in a tree lot, in the middle of a storm, with a drunk father who doesn’t even bother to come and find you.

So very sad.