Adult Fiction

Queen Demon

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by Martha Wells
First sentence: “The sun was high and bright when Kai rode into Benais-arik in Bashasa’s wake, their cadres on horseback around them.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: October 7, 2025
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Others in the series: Witch King
Content: There is death, including several murders, and some mild swearing. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

I’d say spoilers for Witch King, but I’m not sure there are?

This one is split into two intermingling parts: the past and the present. The past tells how Kai became the Witch King, how he came to fight the Hierarchs, and how he and Bashasa’s relationship (of sorts; it’s unclear how much their relationship was, still) came to develop and deepen. The present is mostly Kai and his family – his witch friend, her wife, her wife’s brother, and a couple of children – end up chasing after what may or may not be a new Heirarch, which (obviously) they want to stop.

This one took me a bit to get into, partially because I read Witch King more than a year and a half ago, and I honestly couldn’t remember much from it. That said, I persevered, and after a bit, I got the rhythm of the story, and I found myself really loving Kai and his adventures again. My only real complaint is the ending – it’s dramatic and grand, but Wells left strings dangling, and I’m not sure the story is complete. At least I hope the story isn’t complete. Because while I thought this was a duology, I hope that she will be able to give it a more satisfying ending. But that’s a small complaint. It’s an excellent story, and Wells is as gifted with fantasy as she is with science fiction.

Fingers crossed for more.

Nine Goblins

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by T. Kingfisher
First sentence: “It was gruel again for breakfast.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: January 20, 2026 (unless you want it in e-book; it’s available now)
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is some violence, including a huge (kind of gory) massacre. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Look: goblins aren’t really made for war. It’s unfortunate that they found themselves in such a state – well, it’s not really their fault – that they are in a constant war with the humans and elves. Mostly, what goblins want to do is complain. Which, they suppose, war is good for. And the members of the Whining Nines (ha!) are really good at that. And their sergeant, Nessilka, doesn’t really want to be in charge, but since the rest of the goblins in her unit are really kind of useless, she supposes being in charge is what she has to do. That is, until they accidentally end up in the forest on the elf/human side. Where there is something decidedly… not right.

Okay, I don’t read e-books. I don’t like e-books. But, this one was spoken highly enough by several coworkers, and because it’s T. Kingfisher, I was willing to read an e-book. And I was not disappointed. Seriously. This one made me laugh out loud. It made me delighted the whole way through. There was enough of a plot to keep me going, but mostly it was the characters that just charmed the socks off me. I loved them all. And I would happily join them for more adventures if Kingfisher wanted to write them.

I don’t think I’ve read a bad Kingfisher book yet.

There is No Antimemetics Division

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by qntm
First sentence: “‘Do anything nice over Christmas?'”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: November 11, 2025
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and some violence that is gross at times. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Oh, this one is going to be hard to sum up. Possibly impossible. Perhaps the best thing to know is that there is an Organization out there, one that is fighting against various memetics – some harmless, some ancient, others… not so much – to keep humanity, well, functioning. Except there is one memetic that has been released that is so powerful. And the problem is that if you remember it, you can’t combat it. How do you kill an idea that you don’t remember, and that won’t die?

It’s possibly the best bit of mind-blowing crazy train weirdness that I’ve read since the Locked Tomb series. It’s SO hard to explain, and yet, I was riveted: I couldn’t put the book down. Both of my co-workers said when they finished it, they immediately started it over again, and I get that: there is so much here that it’s impossible to catch it all in one reading. It’s really that good.

And I was blown away by it.

It’s a Love Story

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by Annabel Monaghan
First sentence: “Fake it till you make it is a philosophy that serves in literally every aspect of life.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is swearing, including a few f-bombs, and a couple of on-page, but not terribly graphic, sex scenes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Jane Jackson has spent much of her adult life trying to get away from the reputation she had (mostly on-screen) as a child TV star. She’s okay for money – residuals from the show have helped – but she’s trying to make it as a film producer. She thinks she has The Script to make a good movie, but two things are working against her: The production company she works for wants something “commercial,” and the cinematographer they hired, Dan, is her arch nemesis. Then she gets the brilliant idea: have pop star Jack Quinlin (whom she dated for exactly 48 hours when she was 14) sing the song. And, the way to do that? He’s singing at a festival in Dan’s hometown. That means spending a week on Long Island with Dan and his family, and convincing Jack – who may not remember her – to do the song. Will it work?

I liked this one well enough. I liked the relationship between Jane and Dan, and how the third-act breakup was more about Jane’s personal journey than something stupid Dan did. I liked the summer vibes of the book. I liked Dan’s family being loud and obnoxious and close, and how Dan felt he didn’t quite fit. I liked Dan and Jane’s relationship (though it was sort of instalove-y). But I didn’t love it. It was lacking that something to make me truly connect to the characters (maybe because Jane was a child actor?) and to fully feel the emotional impact of the story. That said, I’ll stand by my statement that maybe Monaghan writes more and less good books, but doesn’t actually write a bad one.

Love is a War Song

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by Danica Nava
First sentence: “Three nearly naked men drenched in oil gyrated around me, their things barely covered in short tan-hide loincloths that dangled between their thighs.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and a couple of on-page sex scenes. It’s in the Contemporary Romance section of the bookstore.

Avery has spent her whole life in LA – first as a child actor, and now trying to break into the music business. Sure, she just wants to write her own songs, but her mom (who is also her manager) keeps telling her that she has to pay her dues. So, she listens when the record label gives her a “Native-inspired” song (since her mother says they’re Muscogee) and films a video for it. Plus there’s a Rolling Stone cover. But when they come out, there is a huge backlash: what they thought was “taking back stereotypes” ended up just being deeply racist. So, to get away from death threats, her mother sends Avery to her estranged grandmother’s house in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, to hide. And maybe to learn a bit about this heritage she has claimed but knows nothing about.

Once there – on her grandmother’s working ranch – she meets Lucas, a Muscogee ranch hand who has a chip on his shoulder, especially when it comes to her and her music. Except, he’s hot. And while she is often annoyed at him, she also kind of likes being around him. And she comes to respect him. And maybe there’s more to Broken Arrow than she thinks.

I’m not sure I liked this one as much as I liked The Truth According to Ember, but I did like it. I like that Nava looked at how being a Native person in Hollywood/the music industry isn’t an easy thing. I liked the juxtaposition of city girl/country boy. Nava is good at writing banter, and I liked how she wove in Native culture and mannerisms throughout the book. Additionally, both Avery and Lucas grew as people, which was satisfying to see.

In short: I really liked this one.

Brigands & Breadknives

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by Travis Baldree
First sentence: “‘Fuck!’ creid Fern, ducking back inside the carriage a whisker before a clawed and scaled hand sailed past.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: November 11, 2025.
Others in the series: Legends & Lattes, Bookshops & Bonedust
Review copy pilfered off the ARC shelves at work.
Content: It is very sweary. Like VERY sweary. (I like a book that tells you what it is with the first word.) And there’s some fantasy violence. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Fern (the bookshop owner from the last book) has decided to relocate, after 20 years, to Thune, where the orc Viv is. Mostly to be near her friend, but also because Fern has lost the love of bookselling and needs a Change. Once in Thune, though, she realizes that she just can’t sell books anymore, and on a drunken whim, climbs into the carriage of the famous (legendary, even) one-eared Elf, Astryx. She doesn’t quite know what she’s thinking, but when Astryx finally discovers her, it’s too far for Fern to walk back. So, she stays. And she and Astryx – and a weird little (hilarious) goblin named Zyll, that Astryx is nominally returning for bounty – go on a journey.

Like Baldree’s other books, the premise is super simple. The joy, however, is in all the little things. It was Fern learning how to be on the road, growing into her own over the journey. (It was also Fern’s creative swearing.) It was the “diminished Elder Blade” knife that was just silly. It was the growing friendship and respect between Astryx and Fern. It was all their silly little side quests.

I listened to the other two on audio (Baldree is a fantastic narrator), and I wondered if this would hold up in print. It absolutely does. I loved being back in this world, I really enjoyed Fern as a main character, and I’d be happy to follow them all on any more silly adventures that Baldree dreams up.

Slipstream

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by Madge Maril
First sentence: “Stories sell.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy pilfered from the ARC stacks at work.
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and a couple on-page, but not super graphic sex scenes. It’s in the Contemporary Romance section of the bookstore.

Lilah just wants to be a serious documentary filmmaker. So, when her boyfriend and business partner decides to take on a documentary about an F1 racing team as their next project, Lilah feels betrayed. Even more so, when he tells her he’s been sleeping with he team’s marketing manager and breaks their relationship off. Newly dumped and betrayed, she turns to the team’s backup driver, Arthur Bianco, who only wants to get back on the grid, preferably on his old team, and not one where his overbearing uncle is the team principal. Of course, this means they go in together to try to sabotage the documentary. Of course, this means they will fall in love. And of course, things will work out happily ever after.

All that said, this one was a lot of fun. I think I liked it partly because Lilah wasn’t really part of the racing team – she was adjacent to, and while she was working for it, it’s not like she was part of the racing team. I liked it, too, because you got to see Lilah fall in love with F1 as well as with Arthur, and I thought Maril did that well.

Yes, it was corny and unbelievable, really, but hey, it’s a romance book. It’s not supposed to be. It was fun, and honestly, that’s all I expect. And this one absolutely delivered.

Audiobook: Problematic Summer Romance

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by Ali Hazelwood
Read by Elizabeth Lamont & Eric Nolan
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a lot of swearing, including multiple f-bombs, as well as some pretty detailed on-page sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Maya’s brother Eli and his fiance Rue are getting married in Italy, and everything about this is perfect. Except that Eli’s best friend, Connor, is going to be there. The Connor that Maya has been in love with for three years, and who Connor has very gently, but very firmly, discouraged. See: Connor is 38, and Maya is 23. Connor can’t get over the age difference, so even though they spent years talking daily, and they’re pretty perfectly matched, he won’t give in. Much to Maya’s dismay. She wants nothing more than to be with Connor, his imperfections and all.

First off: the book is, in fact, problematic. I’ve been thinking about it since I finished, and I’m not sure why I couldn’t get over the age gap. It’s the same as in Emma, why is that 21-to-37 age gap okay (I mean, Mr. Knightly literally saw Emma grow up!) and this one is not okay? I was talking to another friend about it, and she pointed out that if we switched the roles – Maya was older, and Connor was the younger one pining and not letting her “no” be final – then it would be really problematic. I don’t know. It could just be the way Hazelwood wrote Maya and Connor – she’s very flirty and aggressive and he is very reserved and protective. Maybe I’m not comfortable with that? (Which, yes, says more about me than the book. Maybe all of this says more about me than the book.)

That said, I adored the narrators on this one. Lamont was fantastic as Maya/the general narrator and though I don’t usually like a duet narration, I liked the way Nolan did the men. Maybe I’m just a sucker for an Irish brogue. So, even with the whole problematic part of it, I did end up enjoying the book. If only because the narrators were just amazing.

Audiobook: System Collapse

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by Martha Wells
Read by Kevin R. Free
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Others in the series: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Network Effect
Content: Like all Murderbot books, there is a lot of violence and swearing (Wells is a master of the artfully placed f-bomb). It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

I don’t have much to say about this that I didn’t already say two years ago. I finally convinced my husband to read this series (thanks to the TV show on Apple+) and this was the last one he had to read, so we listened to it on audio on a recent long drive. I didn’t mind revisiting Murderbot and its world, and I had heard that the audio was really good.

The audio is really good. Free does a fantastic job with the narration, with capturing Murderbot’s personality, with the book in general. He kept my interest, and it’s one of those books you don’t want to turn off and get out of the car.

And an additional bonus: K, who was in the car with us, ended up listening as well, and she’s plowed through half of the series since we got back.

I call that a win.

Into the Riverlands

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by Nghi Vo
First sentence: “The barber paused, flicking water droplets from his razor with a brisk snap of his wrist.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is some violence and evidence of a murder. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

We scheduled an event with Vo, and the marketing person at work is super excited about this, so she decided to pass out Vo’s books to staff to get them excited, too. This was the one she thought I would like.

I’m not quite sure of the plot. There’s a monk – but they’re not religious – and their talking? sentient? bird named Absolutely Beautiful and they’re on a journey… somewhere? They meet up with people who go with them. Stories are told, a dead body is found. Maybe other stuff happens? I am honestly not sure.

Which is really my reaction to this. I have no idea what I read. I’m not a “good” enough, close enough, critical enough reader to actually get what happened in this short book (is it a long short story or a short book?). I can see how people like this; it was well written, and the language is beautiful, but personally. I don’t get it.