Adult Fiction

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.”
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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.

Exiles

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by Mason Coile
First sentence: “The beeping won’t stop.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: September 16, 2025
Review copy thrust on me by a co-worker who loved it. Spoiler: he was right.
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and two very grisly murders. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

It’s the near future, and humanity has decided to colonize Mars. They’ve sent some bots ahead to build a base, and three humans – Beck, Kang, and Gold – have been chosen to start a base there. But, when they come out of suspended animation (it’s a long seven-month trip, why stay awake?), the bots that were supposed to greet them aren’t responding. That’s the first clue that something… unusual… has happened. As the humans get to the base, they find parts of it destroyed, and some irregularities with the bots. And, as the mystery unfolds, they realize that the problem is larger than they could have ever imagined.

Oh, wow, this was intense. It’s being billed as gothic horror in space, but I felt like it was less horror and just good, straight-up science fiction. It’s a tight book, coming in at just over 200 pages, and it’s pretty flawless. The twists were genuinely surprising (well, I’m also not the closest reader), and it’s a clever look at what might happen on Mars (spoiler: it’s not good). Anyone who loved Murderbot will love this one as well.

Remarkably well done. (Maybe I should read William?)

Audiobook: Wild and Wrangled

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by Lyla Sage
Read by Connor Crais, Savannah Peachwood, and Stella Hunter
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Others in the series: Done and Dusted, Swift and Saddled, Lost and Lassoed
Content: There’s a lot of swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and (while it takes a while to get there) a lot of on-page sexytimes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

All Camille has wanted to do is get married to get her (rich) parents off her back and to secure the future for her daughter. Except things don’t go according to plan: her fiancé never shows up for their wedding, sending a note calling it off. And, to make things worse, as Cam tries to rebuild her life, her first love, her high school boyfriend, Dusty Tucker, shows up back in her life. It didn’t work out – though they tried – the first time around, and Cam’s not sure if she wants to see if it can work out a second time. But Dusty is persistent, and being in a relationship with him feels… right. Can she buck her parents and her expectations and her fears, and make it work with him again?

I liked this one better than I have the past couple Rebel Blue books, though I still think I might be over cowboy romances. That said, I really enjoyed Cam and Dusty together, and I liked the hopefulness of two people who fell in love young, finding their way back to each other. Sage does know how to write characters, and maybe I liked this one more because they were just adoptive members of the Rider family, which meant no overbearing brothers to get in the way. This one had a weight to it – with the class issues and the tension of lost loves – that I think the others missed.

I still like Done and Dusted best (the first time is always the best, no?) but this one is a solid read.

Audiobook: The Knight and the Moth

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by Rachel Gillig
Read by Samantha Hydeson
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There’s violence, including violence towards women; swearing, including multiple f-bombs; and some on-page sex scenes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Six is a diviner for the Abbess of Ashling in the country of Traum. Which means, people come to her, paying her in blood and the Abbess in money, and she drowns in the spring water and divines their futures for them. It’s all she’s ever known, and while she doesn’t love doing it (um, I would wonder if she did), she is very good. What she and her sister diviners (creatively: one through five) really want is for their ten year term to be up and for them to move on with their lives.

Except, over the course of a few nights, Six’s sister diviners go missing. Thankfully, the king and his knights are passing through, and Six escapes with them (well, with the one devilishly handsome, and yet not very nice – the use of the word “ignoble” happened more than once) to go visit each of the omens and to find out what happened to the only things (okay, they’re not “things”) she cared about.

I wanted to like this one much more than I actually did. I had issues with the world (why would you get six diviners at once, and have them all leave at the same time? Why would you NOT stagger their times of service?) and eventually, with the romance. Sure, the knight was all considerate and whatever, but when I finally got to the first sex scene, it was kind of… silly. There was absolutely no chemistry there, and I kept rolling my eyes at it all. And then the twist at the end? I’m not sure it made me mad because it was out of left field (there were clues, but not great ones), or because it was just stupid.

I finished the book (it was a book group book), but I didn’t love it, and I have no intention of reading the sequel.

Sounds Like Love

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by Ashley Poston
First sentence: “Most summer nights in the small beach town of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, there was music at the Revelry.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and some off-page sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Joni grew up surrounded by two things: the ocean and music. Her parents owned the Revelry, a music hall in a town in the Outer Banks. She was happy, but she had big dreams: she wanted to be a songwriter, so after college (and a heartbreak), she headed west. She worked, and finally hit it (relatively) big, but over the past year, she’s had writer’s block. Mostly because her mother has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia, and Joni is afraid she’s going to miss, well, everything.

Then, as she heads back to Vienna Shores for a month-long break, she starts hearing voices in her head. It turns out that it’s Sebastian Fellows, a former boyband member, and who is trying to resurrect his career. Can the two of them work together long enough to get out of each other’s heads? (And do they even want to?)

After the mediocre reaction of Novel Love story (I think I’m one of the few who liked it), I didn’t know what to expect with Poston’s next one. But, she’s back on her game. This was fun, full of music and heart, with enough conflict and tension to keep the book interesting. I liked all the characters and the setting of a beach town in the summer. I liked the relationship between Joni and her parents, and the heartache of her mother’s memory fading. It not as good as Seven Year Slip, but it’s up there.

And it’s a perfect summer novel.

Alchemy of Secrets

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by Stephanie Garber
First sentence: “Holland St. James had been counting down the minutes until tonight.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: October 7, 2025
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There are some murders, and talk of deaths and killing, and some mild swearing. It will be in the Science-Fiction/Fantasy section (probably; it’s not really a romance) of the bookstore.

Holland St. James is a PhD student studying folklore and has become interested in these urban tales about the devil making deals with Hollywood actors. Then, one night, she stumbles on one of the tales – the Watch Man – who tells her she has 24 hours left to live, unless she finds the Alchemical Heart and delivers it to the devil. Thus begins a mystery and a “treasure hunt” that takes Holland through old Hollywood and into the past, uncovering truths about her parents’ deaths.

My initial reaction to this was that it’s pretty much exactly like every other one of Garber’s books. It felt like Caraval, just aged up a bit and set in the real world instead of in a fantasy world. There’s a conflicted heroine, trying to do her best; a couple of questionable love interests (though the spice level on this is basically at just kissing); a sister who has questionable motives but also the heroine’s “best interests” in mind; and several twists and turns, some of which were surprising.

It’s not a bad book, it just didn’t floor me the way I was hoping it would.

Audiobook: Great Black Hope

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by Rob Franklin
Read by Justice Smith
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is drug use and lots of drinking (by adults). There is also a lot of swearing, including many f-bombs. It’s in the Fiction section of the bookstore.

When he’s arrested on drug possession in a small Long Island town, Smith – a queer Black Stanford graduate, trying to make his way in the city- finds himself in an interesting position. He comes from a wealthy Black family, one with power and prestige, so he has the money for bail and treatment, but he is Black, with all that entails, and he finds that his race complicates things.

Which is only partially what this book is about. Smith lost his best friend, Elle, to a drug overdose – another Black life taken – and because of who Elle was, her death was fodder for tabloids. His other friend, Caroline (a white woman), finds herself trying to get sober, but spiraling out of control with an affair with a married French chef. On top of all this, Smith loses his job – not because of the drugs (everyone does drugs!), but just because of downsizing – and is dragged home to Atlanta to face his parents with his less-than-successes.

Much like many adult fiction books, this is less about the plot and more about the journey, which I found interesting. Not much has changed in the past 30 years, when Gen X was in their early-to-mid-20s and having the same crises and doing the same drugs, and experiencing the same ennui. It’s good to know that nothing really changes. That said, Franklin is a good writer, exploring class and race (though I wish he had done more exploring of both) and what it means to be Black and wealthy in a city that respects money more than anything. I think the most telling scene was the confrontation between Smith’s sister (a third-year law student, planning on going into public defense) and their grandmother, whose wealth was built on being a landlord of underserved people (or, as it is lobbed at her, a slum lord). It helped, too, that Justice Smith was a good narrator, and kept me engaged in the story.

Not exactly one that I would have picked up normally (it’s one everyone at the store is talking about), but I’m glad I did.

The Listeners

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by Maggie Stiefvater
First sentence: “The day the hotel changed forever began as any other.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is some fade to black sex and actual Nazis. It’s in the Adult Fiction section of the bookstore.

June Hudson has worked at the Avalon Hotel – a luxury hotel in the mountains of West Virginia – since her mother abandoned her at age 10. She worked her way up from maid to general manager, earning the trust of the owners, the Gilfoyle family, and the staff. It helps that she knows how to keep the sweetwater – the water that runs through everything at the Avalon – from turning. But, it’s January 1942, and June has found that her hotel has been commendeered by the State Department to house diplomats from Germany, Italy, Japan, and Hungary while they figure out an exchange with those countries. The sweetwater feeds on emotions, and tensions are high as the diplomats crash. But, what can June do to keep these people – guests she didn’t want – happy, and keep the water from turning, and still keep the Avalon the Avalon. Because one thing is for sure: nothing will ever be the same.

I wrote a teaser review seven months ago when I first read it, and my opinion hasn’t changed much. It’s a delight to read. I adore the way Maggie writes characters, and June (and Tucker Minnick, the FBI agent) are no exception. She also has a way of creating a place that comes to life; I could see and hear and feel the Avalon around me. I liked that the stakes were high, but nothing was unreasonable. It all made sense in the context of the book. It was as much of a delight to read this time around as it was the first.

Absolutely one of her best.

Audiobook: Food Person

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by Adam Roberts
Read by Mia Hutchinson-Shaw
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and drug use. It’s in the Adult Fiction section of the bookstore.

All Isabella wants to be is a food writer. Except in this age of viral stories and influencers, someone who just wants to focus on the food (and not be on camera) is going to have a hard time of it. So when, after she loses her job at a foody-influencer e-zine, she’s offered to ghost write a cookbook for a once-beloved-but-now-down-and-out celebrity, Molly. It’s somewhat of her dream job: she would love to write a cookbook. Just not one where the other person is vastly uninterested in helping.

There are a lot of ups and downs in this one; both Isabell and Molly have big egos and are mostly unwilling to compromise – Molly wanting something that reflects “her” (or at least her public persona); Isabella wanting something that’s actually good, and something she wants to be proud of. There are hilariously awkward and weird situations (the whole deal with Isabella’s mother is a LOT), and the climax is definitely crazy.

I did like this one though. Hutchinson-Shaw is an excellent narrator, and kept me engaged in this. And Roberts isn’t bad when writing women. He was a former food-writer, so those parts were pretty amazing, and I have to admit that’s why I was there. I adore foody books, and this one absolutely hit the spot.

It was a lot of fun.