Adult Fiction

Back After This

Leave a comment

by Linda Holmes
First sentence: “The trick was not to be noisy.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: Feb 25, 2025
Review copy sent by the publisher and given to me by a coworker who knows I like Linda Holmes’s books.
Content: There is some swearing, including a couple f-bombs, and some off-screen, mostly fade-to-black sex. It will be in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Cecily is a podcast producer and mostly likes her job. She’s not really valued at the company she works for – her ex took the only successful show she ever worked on and that was four years ago and she’s stuck doing mostly the jobs no one wants to do. That is, until the bosses decide to create a dating podcast, the premise is that the dating influencer Eliza will set Cecily up with her perfect mate using Logic and Data and not her gut. Cecily has no interest in a relationship, but she agrees to the premise, if only to protect her job and that of some of her co-workers.

The problem comes when Cecily accidentally meets a guy – Will – who is nothing like the men that Cecily wants her to date. And even though she’s trying to give the podcast her all, she keeps bumping into Will, and they seem to have that undeniable Chemistry. But, will she give in to her heart? Or what Eliza and the demands of the podcast?

In many ways, this is a lot like Is She Really Going Out With Him? – similar enough to be notable. But, even though it’s similar, it’s not the same. I liked Holmes’ take on podcasts (she should know, being on the long-running NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour) and it was interesting to see the work that goes into producing a successful podcast. I did like the logic vs. heart aspect of the story (spoiler, though not really: heart wins out) and Cecily’s journey to figure out what she wants in a relationship and how to get it. I liked the banter between Cecily and Will and the way that their relationship developed. Holmes is good with chemistry, though I think she’s just good at writing normal people well. I liked that Cecily would do anything for her sister or her friends, and the female bonds in the story.

In short, it was a good all-around, charming book.

Thornhedge

Leave a comment

by T. Kingfisher
First sentence: “In the early days, the wall of thorns had been distressingly obvious.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is some mild swearing and a couple instances of violence.

Toadling is a human who was raised in faerie and sent back to the human world with one purpose: to protect the humans from the changeling that was left in Toadling’s place. It didn’t go well, and as a result, Toadling put the changeling to sleep and grew a hedge of thorns and brambles around it to keep people out. Two hundred years pass, and eventually, a semi-failed knight, Halim, comes around asking questions. Toadling tries to warn him off, but he becomes fascinated by her, and eventually, she warms to him, and she knows she shouldn’t tell him about the maiden in the tower…

Ah, much like all of the other Kingfisher books I’ve read, there is a heroine that’s not badass or charismatic or even beautiful. There’s a small problem that needs to be solved, one that will get bigger if it’s not. And even though she doesn’t think she can, the heroine always manages to do what needs to be done, even if it’s only by accident. They are charming books, but also ones with teeth, for the worlds Kingfisher creates are never not dangerous. I adore her writing, I adore her storytelling, and although I’m not brave enough to read her horror (yet), I will happily read everything else she’s written.

Audiobook: Is She Really Going Out With Him?

1 Comment

by Sophie Cousens
Read by Kerry Gilbert
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and a couple of fade-to-black sex scenes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Anna Appleby is just trying to keep her job as a columnist at a Bath magazine. Except there is someone – Will – in-house who is trying to steal her thunder and the new bosses want something more “intimate” out of her. So, she finds herself with a gimmick: she and will will run complimentary dating columns, and hers will be an offline one, where her two kids (ages 13 and 7) pick out who she’s going to date.

As Anna goes on both weird and interesting dates, she comes to realize that the one person she keeps thinking about is probably out of bounds. And she’s not really interested in a relationship. Or is she?

This one was incredibly charming. I liked the premise a lot – there were silly dates and uncomfortable dates, and the people Anna met (and not just the ones she went out with) were just delightful. I did like the push and pull between her and Will and thought that they were both stubborn and fun together. I did like the added level of Anna dealing with her ex and his new girlfriend, and the complications with co-parenting.

And Kerry Gilbert was an absolutely delightful narrator to share the journey with. This one was lot of fun!

Swordheart

Leave a comment

by T. Kingfisher
First sentence: “Halla of Rutger’s Howe had just inherited a great deal of money and was therefore spending her evening trying to figure out how to kill herself.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: February 25, 2025 (though you can get the original paperback here)
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Content: There’s some swearing (maybe some f-bombs? They didn’t stand out), and some fade-to-black sex. It will be in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Halla is a respectable 36-year-old widow who has spent the past 15 years carrying for Silas, her dead husband’s uncle, as he aged and eventually died. As payment (thanks?), Silas leaves everything to Halla, something which her dead husband’s other relatives have issue with. So, what she decides is that all of this would go away if she were dead, and she unsheaths an antique sword Silas had tucked away to do the deed. Except the sword turns out to be a man – Sarkis – who is tasked with serving the wielder of the sword, which happens to be Halla. What Sarkis expects is a lot of fighting…. what he gets is a very long journey to the temple of the Rat God to petition for help solving the inheritance problem, and then a very long journey back.

It sounds like a whole lot of nothing, but Kingfisher is brilliant in making the nothing so much fun. There are laugh-aloud moments, there is a lot of back-and-forth silliness between Sarkis and Halla (not to mention the Rat Priest, Zale, who is pretty delightful themselves) and a very charming slow-burn romance. I usually don’t like the slow burn ones, but this was, well, charming, cozy, delightful, and very rewarding. It’s not spicy, but I found it didn’t matter. It’s very much like a warm hug of a book, one that you read with a smile on your face the whole time. I wanted to finish it faster than I did, but I’m glad I lingered. And yes, I would happily revisit the land for other stories (I think this is a reprint of a book that’s part of a series? I am going to see if I can find the others) set here.

And I’ll reiterate something I’ve come to believe: I’ll read pretty much anything Kingfisher writes (I’m trying to work up the courage to read her horror, too).

The Teller of Small Fortunes

1 Comment

by
First sentence: “On the day the Teller of Small Fortunes came to Necker, the village was in an uproar because the candlemaker’s would-be apprentice had lost all the goats.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Content: There is some violence. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasty section of the bookstore.

Tao is just a teller of Small Fortunes. She is alone, except for her horse, traveling from village to village telling only the things that are small. She told, once, a Big Fortune, and she’s still paying the cost. She doesn’t want company, until she stumbles across a couple of adventurers, out looking for the lost daughter of one of them. And then, they pick up a baker and a magical cat, and Tao’s life has suddenly become complicated.

I picked this one up because I wanted something cozy, and this looked, well, cozy. And at first, I was liking it. I liked that Leong brought in racism and suspicion of the Other, and the idea that Tao – born in one country but raised in another – never quite fit anywhere. But, it kept going and it kept being just cozy without much weight to it (though I think Leong tried), and then I got 2/3 of the way through and realized I just didn’t care anymore about Tao or her companions or their Quest. So I skipped to the end to see if the daughter was ever found, and called it good.

I’m sure this will be comforting and lovely to many people. I’m just not one of them.

The Listeners

1 Comment

by Maggie Stiefvater
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: June 3, 2025
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is some fade-to-black sex and talk of Nazis. It will be in the Adult Fiction section of the bookstore.

The story goes like this: Maggie announces that she’s got a book out in June, that it’s published by Viking. She then posts, saying (much more Maggie-like) that she announced too early. But, by this time, I figured out that Viking is published under Penguin, and I emailed our Penguin rep asking if there are ARCs and if can I have one. He emailed back saying that it was super early, and maybe… though later, when I saw him in person, he admitted I caught him off-guard because he had no idea about the book. At any rate, her editors were looking for people to read early manuscript copies, and he gave them my name. Eventually (a month after he told me all this!), the book came in the mail to the owner, who then asked if I wanted it. I had a fangirl moment “Ohmygod, ohmyGod, OHMYGOD, YES!” (she laughed at me) and then took it home and read it practically in one night.

This won’t be a real review; I will want to read it again when it comes out, to get more out of it, to enjoy the cover (that’s just a placeholder there), and to write a real review. But know this: if you like Maggie’s work, you will like this one. The magic is subtler than in her other books, but it’s all very much Maggie. And the characters are so fascinating, so complex. And there are so many little turns of phrase that just melted my heart and caught my fancy. It’s going to be a good one.

I can’t wait for others to get to read it!

Audiobook: Lost and Lassoed

Leave a comment

by Lyla Sage
Read by: Jason Clarke and Samantha Brentmoor
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Others in the series: Done and Dusted, Swift and Saddled
Content: There’s quite a bit of swearing – these characters don’t hold back – and a lot of on-page sexytimes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

It is well established that Gus Ryder and Teddy Anderson do not like each other. They’ve been at each other’s throats, barely civil for years. So, when Gus needs a babysitter for his daughter while her mother is away in Jackson Hole, the last person he wants is Teddy. But Teddy is freshly out of a job because the owner of the boutique she works at decided to sell out and close, and she needs not only the money, but something to do. And who doesn’t love Riley? She’s adorable. What starts as an uncomfortable truce grows into something more over the summer – but what happens at the end, when Camille comes back? Will Gus and Teddy stick? Or will they go back to sniping at each other.

I may have cowboy romance burn out, because I wanted to like this one more than I actually did. I think part of it was Clarke’s narration: his Gus voice was so low and gravelly that I had to crank the volume up just to hear him (I’m not one for deep voices, I guess). Which was more annoying than it should have been. But, while I like enemies to lovers a lot, this one lacked banter. I think it’s because the bulk of the enemies-to-lovers tropes that I like took place in the previous two books, and that just left the resolution for this one. Which kind of left me flat. I wasn’t thrilled with the way Emmy ended up in this one – she was quite self-centered, which you could blame on planning a wedding – and I disliked some elements of the way Sage wrote Teddy and Emmy’s friendship. I did like Teddy and Riley together; that came off as genuine, sweet, and fun.

I think it was me, though. I like cowboys and trucks and rural Wyoming well enough (shoot, those are my people, as my grandmother would have said), but maybe I need a break from them for a little bit.

Sourcery

Leave a comment

by Terry Pratchett
First sentence: “There was a man and he had eight sons.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: It’s a Pratchett novel, so there’s really nothing, except that it’s a bit long. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

I picked this one up because for #ReadICT I needed a book published the year I turned 16, which was 1988. I looked at lists of the best sellers and top books, and nothing spoke to me until I stumbled across this one. Ah, I thought I could always read another Discworld book that I hadn’t read. I haven’t dabbled in the Rincewind books at all – I’ve never been much interested – but I figured why not. It’s a Terry Pratchett book.

This one is simple in plot: wizards aren’t supposed to have kids because there is a chance of sorcerers, and those are Bad. Except one wizard did have kid – the eighth son of an eighth son, which I find hilarious – and eventually he came to take over the Unseen University. Rincewind – and friends he picked up along the way – are sent to keep the Archmage hat safe (or as safe as possible, which, of course, doesn’t work very well) from the sorcerer, and so that the Apocalypse can be (narrowly) avoided.

But Pratchett’s books are not about the plot. They’re about the journey, and the little asides, and the footnotes, and the humor that you find. And, while this one isn’t my favorite (and it’s not even as good as Hogfather, which I read at the beginning of the year), it was still fun. It made me laugh, I was entertained, and I read it much quicker than I’ve been reading pretty much anything else these days.

Then again, it’s Sir Terry. I don’t think he ever wrote a bad book. Just more good and less good. And maybe this one was less good for me, but it’s still a delight.

Audiobook: We Solve Murders

Leave a comment

by Richard Osman
Read by Nicola Walker
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There are some murders (obviously: it’s in the title), but nothing gory, as well as mild swearing (and maybe one or two f-bombs that I’m not recalling right now). It’s in the Mystery section of the bookstore.

Amy Wheeler is a bodyguard-for-hire, and very good at her job. She’s a professional, and is determined to protect her latest client, the bestselling mystery author Rosie D’Antonio. Except someone is out to kill Amy instead. The one person she can trust is her father-in-law, Steve. A retired cop-turned-low-stakes PI, Steve just wants to be at home. But he cares about his daughter-in-law, and when she asks, he comes. Even if it means flying across the world. (Though he does get spoiled by all the private jets he flies on.) The question is: can they figure out who is trying to kill Amy (and set her up for several other murders) before they actually manage to succeed?

Oh, this one was a lot of fun! I listened to The Thursday Murder Club and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I’m not surprised. This one had a lot of twists and turns and action plus quite a bit of humor and kept me thoroughly entertained. It ended up being one of those books that wanted to keep listening to. Part of that was Walker’s narration; she was absolutely fabulous with the characters and driving the narration forward. But the other part is Osman’s gift for not only writing fully fleshed-out older people (him and Clare Pooley, honestly) but for writing a solid mystery that kept me entertained while also guessing at whodunit.

Highly recommend this one.

The Ex Hex

Leave a comment

by Erin Sterling
First sentence: “Never mix vodka and witchcraft.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is on-screen sex as well as some swearing, including multiple f-bombs. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

When she was 19, Vivienne had a summer fling with Rhys Penhallow, which ended badly – breaking her heart. So, she and her cousin Gwyn “hexed” him – mostly in jest, but maybe there’s something more. Because 9 years later, Rhys is back in Graves Glen to charge the ley lines and things have gone horribly wrong. Maybe the hex that Vivienne and Gwyn did had some teeth after all.

As Vivi and Rhys try to figure out how to reverse the hex, they realize that maybe what they had 9 years ago wasn’t just a summer fling. Maybe it was something more. Can they fix the hex in time?

I picked this up last year intending to read it at Halloween, but never did. So, when I was looking for something fun and fluffy to read, I found this one sitting on a shelf. Why not read a witchy romance? And I’m so glad I did. It was everything I wanted: fun, sassy, fluffy, and utterly delightful. I liked the witchy touches – the tarot cards and the spells – and also the whole Halloween vibe of the book. It’s the perfect cozy book for the season (especially for those of us who don’t do scary).

An utter delight.