Adult Fiction

The Fireborne Blade

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by Charlotte Bond
First sentence: “On my oath, I, Sir Nathaniel, do swear that what I am about to tell the Distinguished Mage is the truth.”
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Release date: May 28, 2024
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Content: There is violence and some pretty gruesome deaths. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Maddileh is a knight. She’s managed to get herself disgraced – it was something to do with an ex-lover and punching him in the face because he was an ass. She figures that there’s only one way to reclaim her honor: get the legendary Fireborne Blade from The White Lady Dragon. It’s impossible, but she’s going to do it.

Of course, it’s not that simple. Her story is interspersed with chapters that are histories – some oral, some told by others – of knights who fought dragons and often didn’t live to tell their tales. If the White Lady is anything like these… then how is Maddileh going to survive? The narrative also jumps in time – sometimes you’re present with her and her squire in the tunnels, others you’re getting her backstory.

This slim novel is utterly compelling. It’s tight, it’s giving me dragons in a way I haven’t seen dragons before (yay for that), and it’s got characters I care about. The publisher is comparing it to Fourth Wing, etc. but that’s not it: it’s more comparable to T. Kingfisher, Martha Wells, or Nicola Griffith than the sprawling, over-dramatic Fourth Wing. This prose is SPARE. The action is intense. The romance is incredibly understated. It’s masterfully done, and I hope it finds an audience because I think it’s fantastic. (Bonus: the sequel is out in October.)

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

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by T.J. Klune
First sentence: “Stepping off the ferry and onto the island for the first time in decades, Arthur Parnassus thought he’d burst into flames then and there.”
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Others in the series: The House in the Cerulean Sea
Release date: September 10, 2024
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is talk of abuse and a couple of moments of actual abuse. There is talk of trauma and CPTSD. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

I have to admit: I didn’t think this book was necessary. The House in the Cerulean Sea is an absolute delight of a book that ended quite satisfactorily. However, I am also not sad to spend more time on Marsyas Island with Arthur, Linus, and the children, and this book makes the case that it needs to exist.

This picks up soon after Cerulean Sea – the government is holding hearings to determine the future of the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. Arthur, having lived in an orphanage when he was young and is currently the headmaster of one, decides to face things and goes to testify. Which, of course, goes horribly wrong. So, another inspector is sent out to see what Arthur, Linus, and the children are up to and if the home is up to DICOMY standards.

Nothing – and everything – goes right.

Much like the first book, this is less about the plot and more about the characters. I adore the children – from Sal stepping into his own as a young man and a leader, to Talia and Phee, to Lucy and Chauncy, and David, the newest one – a yeti who has been on the run since his parents were brutally murdered. I adore Arthur and Linus and their relationship, and the way they wholly support and love each other. I can tell that Klune is angry at all the laws that are being passed targeting LGBT youth – especially the trans bills – and that they’re being done in the name of “protecting the children” and he harnesses that anger to good effect here. There are some absolute laugh-out-loud moments and some pages that are so beautifully written and so moving that I could hardly see the page for my tears.

So, no, while this book was not “needed”, it is wanted and welcome, and I’ll happily read anything else Klune decides to write about this family.

Audiobook: Happily Never After

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by Lynn Painter
Read by Helen Laser & Sean Patrick Hopkins
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: It is very sweary and very spicy. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Sophie Steinbeck doesn’t believe in love. Especially after she found out her fiance was cheating on her right before their wedding. Enter Max Parks: a wedding objector for hire. He is responsible for dealing with the wedding Sophie desperately wants to get out of, helping her save face. And, as part of a drunken night, she decides she wants in. So, the next time Max has a wedding to derail, he calls her up. Thus begins their partnership… which soon blooms into a friendship. Except, Sophie doesn’t believe in love and Max has sworn off it. So, when they kiss – even though there’s a lot of chemistry there – it doesn’t mean anything. But what happens when it starts to?

Oh, this one was delightful on audio. But the narrators are superb, and I adored the characters that Painter created. She wrote some pretty incredible banter, and the sexytimes were done incredibly well (she wrote some of the best kissing I’ve read in a while). There are some genuinely funny bits, and while I think the idea of people objecting at weddings for pay is kind of silly, Painter made it work.

It was just a lot of fun.

The Spellshop

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by Sarah Beth Durst
First sentence: “Kiela never thought the flames would reach the library.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
ARC provided by the publisher.
Release date: July 9, 2024
Content: There are some intense moments. It will be in the SciFi/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Kiela was content with her job as a librarian in the stacks of the Great Library of Alyssium. She and her sentient spider plant assistant, Caz, don’t interact with many people but who needs people when you can organize books? Then, when a rebellion sweeps through the city, the library is set ablaze, and Kiela finds herself taking a bunch of spell books and heading toward her parents’ home on the island of Caltrey. Once there, she realizes she needs to hide – she stole books from the library, and regular citizens aren’t supposed to have access to spells! – and so she decides to open a jam shop as a cover. But then, she meets other islanders and makes friends, and ends up finding a place where she belongs after all.

File this one under “delightful books where not much happens”, though there is the conflict of hiding the books from the other islanders and the looming problem of what if They realize that the books are missing (which is kind of borne out by the end, in a very satisfying way). But, mostly, it’s Kiela and Caz making a home for themselves (and yes, there is a romance with a neighbor, who also has a herd of merhorses) and blooming where they’re planted (pun not intended). I haven’t read one of Durst’s books in a while, but it was delightful to go back to her books. She’s a talented storyteller, someone who knows how to develop characters and a world that feels real. She writes in the afterword that she wanted to create a book that feels like a cozy cup of hot chocolate, and I think she succeeded. It’s a warm delight of a book that I think will make a lot of readers happy.

Audiobook: Rainbow Black

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by Maggie Thrash
Read by Hope Newhouse
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a lot of swearing, including multiple f-bombs, frank talk of sex, and descriptions of a murder scene. It’s in the Mystery section of the bookstore (for a lack of a better place to put it.)

Lacey Bond had an idyllic childhood, out in the New Hampshire woods with her hippie parents who ran a daycare. But then, when she was 13, her parents were arrested on 30 counts of pedophilia, with the townspeople – and more importantly, therapists and prosecutors – accusing them of witchcraft and Satanism, and doing Unspeakable Things with the children. These children also said that Lacey was there, was forced to be a part of it, which Lacey knows she wasn’t. Except, none of the adults believe her. And then, when her older sister, Eclair, is brutally murdered in their house, Lacey is thrown into the system. She does have a friend – Dylan (I hope that’s spelled right!) – who is trans, and who is taken away to live with her abusive biological father and creepy older brothers. Lacey becomes panicked – she has endured a LOT of trauma – and ends up making a decision that puts Lacey and Dylan on the run to Canada.

Fourteen years later, this all comes back to haunt them as they are trying to move past their traumatic childhood and create a decent life for themselves.

It’s a weird book – excellently read by Newhouse – not quite horror, though there is a lot of talk of Satanic Panic and Lacey is often in situations that could be called horrific – not quite a mystery, mostly because there’s no mystery about who is doing these things. I think, in the end, it’s a condemning look at what happens to a kid who – through no fault of their own – gets caught in the system. Of the adults trying to manipulate and coerce the kids to their ends. The adults who weren’t able or just didn’t help out as much as they could. And of the adults who just don’t believe the things the kids say, if they don’t line up with the story they want or need. Also taking a hard look at the consequences when kids take their lives into their own hands. It’s harrowing and sad, though Thrash injects humor along the way.

I don’t think I liked this one in the traditional sense, but I did find it compelling – especially on audio – and it did give me a lot to think about.

The Guncle Abroad

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by Steven Rowley
First sentence: “Patrick O’Hara removed the cloche from his room service breakfast with a flourish it not deserve; he grimaced at what lay beneath.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: The Guncle
Release date: May 21, 20124
Review copy pilfered off the galley shelves at work.
Content: There is some swearing (maybe f-bombs? They didn’t stand out) and some off-screen sex. It will be in the Adult Fiction section of the bookstore.

Five years after he had his neice and nephew out to Palm Springs to mourn the death of his best friend and their mother, Patrick is doing well. His career, which had stalled, has picked up again, and he’s been in a few movies. And his brother met someone – an Italian marchesa – and is getting remarried. Which means Guncle Patrick is needed again. In the wake of breaking up with his boyfriend, Emory, Patrick takes Maisie and Grant around Europe as he tries to teach them (somewhat hypocritcally) about love.

There’s more to the book than that, or it wouldn’t be as delightful as it is, but it’s also that simple: Patrick, Maisie, and Grant need to learn that moving on, while hard, is also a part of life. And loving more people doesn’t erase the ones they loved that have passed on.

Much like Guncle, it’s not a hilarous book, though it certainly exudes charm. I adored that they stopped in Paris, Salzburg, and Vienna on their way to Lake Como, and the way they interacted then. While I do have an issue with Patrick thinking he’s “old” at age 50 (really? Not. Old.), I didn’t mind his melancholy griping (I might feel old, too, if my partner was 20 years younger than me). This is an incredibly character-driven book, and the characters are absolutely people you want to spend time with.

Highly recommended.

The Husbands

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by Holly Gramazio
First sentence: “The man is tall and has dark tousled hair, and when she gets back quite late from Elena’s hen do, she finds him waiting on the landing at the top of the stairs.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: April 2, 2024
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is some swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and off-page sex. It’s in the Fiction section of the bookstore.

When Lauren – who is single, just out of a long-term relationship – arrives home from her best friend’s bachelorette party, she discovers that the universe has gifted her a husband. One that she has no memory of ever marrying (or even meeting). And then, to make things even more interesting, when he goes up into her (their?) attic, a different man comes down. Soon she realizes that her magic attic has gifted her something… interesting: the opportunity to figure out who the “perfect” husband is. But, she soon realizes that it’s not as simple as all that. 

There’s not much else to the plot of this one, but I still found it immensely enjoyable. I’m fascinated by the concept of multiverses, and as Lauren changes through husbands – and consequently, lives – I’m interested in what does and does not change in each iteration. I liked that it was sort of freeing for Lauren; she didn’t have a lot of the constraints around setting up a relationship, having been dropped into the middle of one. I also think there’s the underlying theme of “choose your love and love your choice” going on here. If you’re allowed to change things – because he’s messy, because he has long nose hairs, because he makes coffee badly – would you? Would you settle when you didn’t have to? 

And I thought Gramazio did all this well while keeping Lauren a sympathetic character. it’s her story; we don’t get to know many of the husbands well, and her friends and sister, while always there, are not central to the story. It’s a gimmicky book, sure, but it’s done well, and I quite enjoyed it.

Audiobook: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

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by Heather Fawcett
Read by Ell Potter & Michael Dodds
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There are some intense moments, and it’s a bit slow at times. It’s in the Science Fiction/ Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Emily Wilde has been working on her Encyclopedia of Faeries, documenting as many as she can, for years. And she’s finally gotten funding to go do a field study of the Hidden Ones in Hrafnsvik. She arrives just as winter’s beginning, and because she’s not a terribly personable person, she gets off on the wrong foot. Enter Wendell Bambleby, her colleague from Cambridge, who has followed her to Hrafnsvik. Together – unwillingly at first, on Emily’s part – they win over the villagers, gather stories of the faeries, and quite possibly fall in love.

This one was utterly delightful, particularly on audio. I think I would have liked it in print, but on audio, the story just popped. Both of the narrators were excellent, capturing Emily’s and Wendell’s personalities, as well as those of the villagers around them. (Side note: the jacket blurb for this book calls Emily “curmudgeonly”, but she’s not. It’s never explicitly stated, but the character is most likely on the autism spectrum.) Although the plot is super loose – at one point, Emily wakes up a faerie king and gets trapped in the frozen faerie lands – it’s still a delightful read.

Witch King

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by Martha Wells
First sentence: “Waking was floating to the surface of a soft world of water, not what Kai had expected.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is violence, and some swearing, including multiple f-bombs. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

If you read the jacket summary of the book, you don’t get a whole lot of information. Kai, a demon, has just woken up from being entombed, to find the government coalition he helped form falling apart. This is all true, but the plot is so much more than that. It’s part mystery: Kai and his friends have to figure out why he (and his witch friend, Ziede) was entombed and where Ziede’s wife, an Immortal Marshall is also missing. It’s partly a telling of colonial conquerors and how Kai helped (almost accidentally) overthrow them. It’s a friendship story, one of trust both made and broken. And it’s an adventure story, as you get to see more of the world that Wells has created.

I’ve only ever read the Murderbot series by Wells, but I trust her writing. She’s an excellent world-builder (I could see some of the same elements that I really enjoyed in the Murderbot books) and I liked the magic system she created. She’s got great characters – both main and secondary – and she knows how to make readers care for them. There are Stakes here, and people could die at any point (well, not Kai, since he’s a demon). It was a really great book, and I appreciated that it stood on its own, while leaving threads open to follow, if she chooses to write more.

I don’t know if I’ll go back and read some of her older books, but I quite enjoyed this one.

Funny Story

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by Emily Henry
First sentence: “Some people are natural storytellers.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
ARC pilfered from the box our awesome Penguin rep sent the store.
Release date: April 23, 2024
Content: There is some swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and on-page sex. It will be in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Daphne has uprooted her life and moved to northern Michigan – a smallish town on Lake Michigan – because her fiance, Peter, wanted to move home. All is fine and good: she has a dream job as a children’s librarian and she’s planning their wedding. Until the night of Peter’s bachelor party, when he decides he can’t live without his best friend and love of his life, Petra. He calls off the wedding, and heartbroken, Daphne turns to the only person she can think of who can understand her heartbreak (and has an empty room): Petra’s ex-boyfriend, Miles.

Their stint as roommates is uneventful until they get invitations to Peter and Petra’s wedding. Then, when they drunkenly RSVP and Peter calls to ask why, Daphne lets out that she and Miles are “dating”. Thus begins the fake dating scheme to get back at Peter and Petra, which might just turn into something more.

Henry is a solid romance writer, and this one is right up there with the best of her work. I think she’s justifying her leap to hardcover: this one is as much about Daphne’s self-discovery and learning to make and cultivate friendships as it is about hitting all the romance tropes. I love that both Daphne and Miles are complicated characters, but that they learn, develop, and grow together in ways that are just delightful. Henry knows how to write banter with the best of them, and even though the characters aren’t enemies, there’s some pretty smart and fun banter going on. And there’s palpable tension coming off the page when they get together.

If Henry decides to publish her grocery list, I’ll read it. She’s just that good. And this one is no exception.