Speculative Fiction

A Harvest of Hearts

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by Andrea Eames
First sentence: “They said that magic, real magic, not the shite that hedgewitches peddled with all their little bags of powders and herbs, could only be performed in exchange for a human heart.”
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Content: There is some swearing (including one or two f-bombs), pretty gruesome deaths, and an off-page sex scene. It’s in the Romance section but it’s more of a fantasy.

The kingdom that Foss has grown up in has had no war, no disease, the plants and animals are always healthy. The cost: the king and his 12 sorcerers — 11 women and one man — harvest hearts from the citizens to keep the magic going. Foss wants nothing to do with it – she is just an awkward butcher’s daughter – but one time, her heart got snagged by the male. He didn’t actually take her, but it was painful to be away from him, so she followed him to the city and to his house, where she volunteered to be his housekeeper. She resented herself for this, even though she knew it was magic. But once there, she set about looking for her heart to make it whole again and discovered the rotten underbelly of the kingdom and the magic.

I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I was pleasantly charmed by this one. I adored Foss, she was very pragmatic, often funny, and headstrong enough to make me want to root for her. Eams has created a very unique magic system, something dark and grisly – I mean, cruelly taking people’s hearts to fuel magic! – but the book isn’t dark or creepy. It gave off strong Kingfisher vibes – a bit of humor and heart underneath something terrible and daunting. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

The Enchanted Greenhouse

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by Sarah Beth Durst
First sentence: “The plant was innocent.”
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Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: July 15, 2025
Others in the series: The Spellshop
Content: There are some tense moments, and talk of death and loss. It will be in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Terlu was the librarian who made Caz in The Spellshop, and was punished for it, spending six years as a wooden statue. When she finds herself awakened, on a snowy island, she has no idea how long she’s been gone, or why she’s finally back to herself. What she discovers is Yarrow, a lone, grumpy gardener keeping care of dying enchanted greenhouses, and he wants and expects her to fix him. It’s not that simple: Terlu is a librarian, not a sorcerer, but she finds herself charmed (especially when she wakes up Lotti, a sentient rose plant) and is determined to help. She’s afraid of being punished again, but she figures that maybe it’s worth it, especially if she can get Yarrow to smile.

Much like The Spellshop this one is all about the cozy vibes. There isn’t much conflict – Terlu is afraid of working magic against the law, which is understandable given that she was punished once already, and there is an increasing need to fix the magic with the greenhouses, as they are failing faster and faster. There’s a small falling out in the third act, but nothing drastic. This is all about sweetness and coziness and just being charming and lovely. Which means, of course, that I adored it.

It’s not for the people who want spice or tension, but it will definitely appeal to those who loved The Spellshop, and who want to just feel, well, smiley.

Audiobook: Return to Sender

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by Vera Brosgol
Read by Michelle H. Lee
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There are some intense moments and it begins with a dead parent. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Oliver has moved a lot in the past year after his dad passed away. He has desperately wanted two things: his own bedroom and to grow up and follow his dad’s dream by opening a restaurant. He gets his first wish when his mom’s great-aunt passes away and leaves the apartment to her. Except there’s something weird in the apartment: A mail slot in the wall that goes nowhere. But, when Oliver slips in an accidental “wish” (for pizza!) and it comes true, he realizes what he’s got: his own personal wish-fulfiller. But, as his wishes get more and more grand, he starts realizing that the consequences of his actions are bigger and bigger.

I’ve enjoyed Brosgol’s graphic novels in the past, and I know she’s a good storyteller, but I didn’t know what to expect out of a prose novel from her. I didn’t need to worry (I didn’t, really): she’s an excellent writer, and this has everything that a middle grade novel needs. It reaches the kids where they are at, it’s funny and fast-paced, and it’s got a huge heart. I loved that at its heart it’s about the butterfly effect – how our actions have consequences, for good or ill – and about the disparity between rich and poor, and how unfair it is that rich people don’t often see the consequences of their actions. There’s a silly villain, there’s action and tension, and it’s just a lot of fun.

This one is good whatever way you read it: in the print version, Brosgol has included illustrations; in the audio version, Lee is an excellent narrator who makes the story that propels the story forward.

I hope many kids find this one, because it’s fantastic.

Audiobook: That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon

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by Kimberly Lemming
Read by Hazel Addison
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: This is a spicy book! Lots of on-page sex, lots of swearing. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

All Cinnamon wants to do is grow her spice (guess which one) and live a quiet life with her family and friends. But then, she accidentally saves the demon Fallon, and gets caught in his quest to defeat the evil witch that is enslaving demons. Cin goes along reluctantly at first, but as they spend more time together, sparks start to fly (among other things).

This was so so silly. Incredibly silly. Like I felt myself getting less intelligent reading this silly. That said, Addison was a good narrator, and I had a grand time listening to it. I’m sure there are internal inconsistencies and that the world-building wasn’t that great, but honestly, I didn’t care. I was here for a good time, and Lemming gave me one.

I’m not sure I care enough to read the rest of the series, but this one was a lot of silly fun.

Hemlock & Silver

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by T. Kingfisher
First sentence: “I had just taken poison when the king arrived to inform me that he had murdered his wife.”
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Release date: August 19, 2025
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is some violence, and swearing, including a few f-bombs. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

All Anja wanted was a quiet (enough) life to study poisions and to attempt to find antidotes and cures for as many as she could. Unfortunately, that means she is very good at what she does, and that catches the notice of the king, who comes and “asks” (do kings really ask?) her to save his daughter, Snow, who is slowly wasting away, probably being poisoned. Anja doesn’t want to do this – if she fails, it will be the ruin of her and her father – but she doesn’t have a choice. Once she sees Snow, however, things become more complicated: this is not any ordinary poison.

It’s a very loose, and very clever, retelling of Snow White, one that doesn’t focus on the princess, but rather in which you see the story unfold completely outside of it. It’s incredibly clever (even though it does take nearly 100 pages for the story to really get going – but Kingfisher’s writing is good enough that I didn’t mind that) in both its use of magic and the way in which the fairy tale is interpreted. But, mostly I liked it for what I have come to like about Kingfisher’s books: Anja is not your typical heroine. She’s older, she’s grumpy, she’s single-minded, she’s frumpy, she’s stubborn, and I adored her. I love that Kingfisher gives us main characters that aren’t what you usually think of when you say “fairy tale retelling”, and I am here for pretty much anything that she writes.

This is no exception: it’s truly a delight to read.

Audiobook: Deep Dark

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by Zohra Nabi
Read by Sarah Ovens
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There are some intense parts, jump scares, and neglectful/bad parenting. It would be in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore if it existed in physical form.

Cassia Thorne has spent half of her life in a debtor’s prison in London, eking out what living she could while her father slowly descended into madness. She has made her way as a flute player at the Bartholomew Fair, but this year, she has hopes of something grander: to write and sell the songs that everyone sings. But, her quest for a grander life is waylaid when her friend’s younger brother goes missing. And suddenly Cassia is thrust into the underworld of London, a world of monsters and greedy men, a world where poor children go missing solely because no one will think to go looking for them.

Can Cassia help before it’s too late?

I pitched this one to my coworkers as Dickens with a kraken, and they all agreed: who wouldn’t want to read that? I do have to admit, I was a little disappointed there was an actual monster; I was kind of hoping for a straight-up historical mystery. That said, Nabi did a fantastic job weaving both the speculative aspect of an actual monster in the tunnels under London with the historical elements of class and the way poor people had to scrape to make it.

Ovens was a fantastic narrator, though, keeping the story moving forward, and keeping me engaged enough to keep wanting to listen. I’m sad there isn’t a physical publication of the book in the US; I can think of a handful of kids who would love this one.

But it’s fantastic on audio.

The Bridge Kingdom

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by Danielle L. Jensen
First sentence: “Lara rested her elbows on the low sandstone wall, her eyes fixed on the glowing sun descending over the distant mountain peaks, nothing between here and there but scorching sand dunes, scorpions, and the occasional lizard.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is violence (lots- the body count is high in this one), on-page sex, and swearing including multiple f-bombs. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Lara – along with 19 of her half-sisters – has been trained by her father, the king of Maridrina – with one goal in mind: marry King Aren, the king of the Bridge Kingdom, gain his trust, infiltrate his country, and help her father bring the country to its knees. At first, Lara is all-in on this plan: she has come to believe that Aren and his country are responsible for the starvation and plagues in her own. But, as she comes to know Aren and his people, she’s not so sure. Perhaps, just maybe, things are not quite as they seem.

I had kind of low expectations going into this one, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was a solid fantasy – I liked the world-building that Jensen did, which never felt overly expository, and I liked the characters she developed. I didn’t get much of a sense of many of the minor characters (there were so many!), but Lara and Aren were really fully developed, which I liked. I did think the sex was a little bit… performative? If that’s the right word; it just didn’t feel as connected as I feel it could have been. My biggest complaint though was the twist with 40 pages left in the book. I don’t mind reading a sequel, but I do get a bit annoyed when the story is left unfinished and I feel I have to read the sequel to finish it out. That said, though, Jensen is a decent writer, and this was a solid book

Audiobook: Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales

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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
Others in the series: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands
Content: There are some intense moments and a bit of faerie violence. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Spoilers for the first two, obviously.

Emily and Wendell have returned to Wendell’s kingdom, the Silver Loopie, for him to take his place as ruler. It’s not all fun and games, because the former queen, Wendell’s stepmother, isn’t quite dead yet and has put a curse on the land poisoning it. It’s up to Emily, and her immense knowledge of fairy stories, to figure out which story this is playing out as, and how to set the Silver Loopie to rights. And, maybe somewhere along the way, she will figure out how to be the queen of a faerie realm.

I probably guessed somewhere along the way, that this was going to be the end of Emily and Wendell’s adventures, and while I’m sad to see them go, I love the way Fawcett wrapped them up. It had everything I have come to adore about these books: faerie magic, a bit of tension between Emily and Wendell, her dog Shadow (love the dog!), and adventures that she approaches scholarly. It was as charming and as wonderful as the other two.

I do have to admit that I got an advance copy of this book, and tried to read it but couldn’t connect with it. It wasn’t until I picked it up in audio and started listening that I realized that these books, while charming and delightful on their own, are made for audio. Potter does such as wonderful job capturing Emily’s voice and mannerisms, that she makes Emily just jump off the page. They are truly delightful as audiobooks

And, to be honest, I’m okay with the series ending. What I would like, though, is a spin-off series featuring Emily’s niece Ariadnae (not sure of the spelling of that one!). That would be delightful.

A thoroughly charming ending to a thoroughly charming series.

Audiobook: Onyx Storm

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by Rebecca Yarros
Read by Rebecca Soler, Teddy Hamilton, Justis Bolding & Jasmin Walker
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Others in the series: Fourth Wing, Iron Flame
Content: It’s super sweary, super violent, and lots of on-screen sexytimes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Spoilers for the first two books, obviously.

It’s picking up again, where Iron Flame left off – there’s venin (I think that’s how you spell it), Xaden’s turning into one (though he’s trying hard to stop it), the king won’t let refugees in, and they need to find Andara’s (is that spelled right?) dragon family.

And we’re going to spend 500+ (23 hours!) pages doing this.

I started out liking this one – Solner is still delightfully unhinged, I thought the travels around the islands were interesting, and it was nice to have Violet back being a smart badass again. But, as the book went on I lost patience with it. It dragged in the middle. I wanted to punch Xaden in the face on a number of occasions. I hated the “I wanted you but I don’t trust myself” parts and the miscommunication. The last one was a lot, but this was even MORE. And by the end, I was just not interested. (Speaking of the end: I hated it. So much.)

And, after three 500 page books in a five-book series that could have been a solid trilogy, I think I’m done. I have zero interest in where the story is going, in Violet and Xaden’s future, or in all the many plot strings Yarros left undone.

(If I consider reading the fourth when it comes out, remind me that I’m probably going to be annoyed and frustrated with it and that it’s probably not going to be worth my time.)

Swordheart

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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).